Obaseki’s Cert Forgery : Court to rule on indefinite adjournment request

The Federal High Court in Abuja, has fixed December 15 for ruling on an application by the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, who is praying the court for an indefinite adjournment of the certificate forgery suit filed against him by the All Progressives Congress.

Eko Hot Blog gathered that Justice Ahmed Mohammed fixed the date for ruling upon hearing the lawyers representing parties to the suit on Thursday.

Governor Obaseki’s lawyer, Ken Mozia (SAN), prayed the court to grant an order of stay of proceedings in the case on the grounds that he had filed an interlocutory appeal against a decision of the court.

The governor’s legal team had appealed against a ruling of the court refusing to expunge certain paragraphs from the suit filed against him by the APC.

On Thursday, Mozia had tendered the evidence of the transmission of the appeal to the Court of Appeal, which according to him meant that the Federal High Court could no longer hear the case until the higher court determined the case.

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However, APC’s lawyer, Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), implored the court to dismiss the motion for indefinite adjournment on the ground that the suit being a pre-election matter was time-bound.

Akin told the court that the suit which had a life span of 180 days, would become statute barred on January 9, 2021. Justice Mohammed fixed December 15 for hearing.

The APC, in the suit marked FHC/B/CS/74/2020, prayed the court for an order disqualifying Obaseki as a candidate in the September 19, 2020 Edo State governorship election on the grounds that he supplied false information on oath to the Independent National Electoral Commission, an act said to be contrary to Section 31(5) and (6) of the Electoral Act, 2010.

The opposition party accused the governor of forging the Bachelors Degree he presented to the electoral body to aid his qualification as a candidate for the Gubernatorial election.c