Nigerian lawmaker and owner of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Ltd Ifeanyi Ubah who had been enmeshed in various corruption scandals with the government is now caught in another web of falsehood, forgery and presentation of fake National Examination Council, NECO certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC as a candidate of the Young Progressives Party, YPP in the last National Assembly election.

It does not take rocket scientific process to discover that the examination body has just confirmed that Ifeanyi Ubah submitted a forged certificate to INEC.

A news report yesterday that the Examination Council had affirmed the authenticity of the politician’s certificate after he had been previously sacked by a Federal High Court in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, nullifying his election as the senator representing Anambra South.

The court had ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Mr. Ubah and issue a fresh certificate of return to the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP Obinna Uzoh who came second in the election as the senator-elect of the district

However, a critical look at these two certificates reveals that NECO or someone is trying to assist the controversial business mogul to claim what does not belong to him. The certified copy presented and confirmed by INEC has the serial number; 303865920(note, 3038), while the copy NECO just confirmed as Ifeanyi Ubah’s approved certificate comes with a serial number; 303565920(note, 3035).

A comparison of these two documents glaringly shows differences in signatures, stamp, logo, typeset font and so on. This means NECO’s supposed affirmation of his certificate has further proved the forgery of the certificate and affirmed the judgment of the court that he submitted a fake NECO certificate to INEC.

Many who have taken a keen interest, in this case, are now wondering how the same certificate would have two different serial numbers, logo, font and signature. If we take the NECO certificate released by the examination body as Ifeanyi Ubah’s certificate, then the initial one he submitted to INEC was indeed forged as declared by the Abuja High Court.

Efforts to reach Ifeanyi Ubah to comment on this controversy have been unsuccessful. On his part, Dr. Obinna Uzoh who the court has ordered to be sworn in as the senator representing Anambra South Senatorial district declined to comment on the issue since the case was likely to go before the Appeal Court. Ifeanyi Ubah has vowed to approach an Appellate Court to set aside the judgment of the High Court based on the supposed validation of his certificate by NECO.

Therefore, it appears Ubah is just trying to buy time after he had been sacked by Honourable Justice Bello Kawu of the Abuja Federal High Court on the 17th of January, 2020.

In his judgment, Justice Bello Kawu discharged his Ex-Parte Order suspending the execution of his Judgement in suit No. CV/3044/2018. The claimant in the suit filed the pre-election matter challenging the nomination of the 1st defendant, Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah, by the second defendant, Young Progressive Party, YPP for the Anambra Senatorial District Election.

Aware of his ousting, Ubah then filed several baseless motions in order to delay the course of justice, seeking to stay the execution of the judgment and set aside the judgment, claiming the court lacks the legal jurisdiction to return Uzoh as duly elected quoting section 285 (13) of the 1999 constitution as amended.

However, it is important to note that, where a primary is not held, any state or FCT high court or FHC has jurisdiction to entertain the case. In the case of Lau v PDP (2018) 4 NWLR (Pt. 1608) 60 at 110-111 and 123, the Supreme Court held thus: The law has moved on since the 1999 Constitution vested the Federal High Court with exclusive jurisdiction over any action for a declaration or injunction affecting the validity of any executive or administrative action or decision of the Federal Government or any of its agencies, which includes INEC. The current position of the electoral act, the Federal High Court and the High Court of a State or the Federal Capital Territory have concurrent jurisdiction to hear and determine disputes arising from the conduct of a party’s primaries…

BY: SUNDAY ADEBAYO