The Committee members were:
- Madugu Mohammed Aihaji, Committee Chairman
- Zainab M. Fufore
- Obanor Josephine Enobie
- Khadijah M. Gwarzo
- Abdullahi Ahmed Azare
- Muhammed W. Hamza, and,
- Aminu Nash Audu, Committee Secretary
16 persons appeared before the Committee in the cause of the investigation as follows:
1. Ifeanyl Uba 2. Chukwuemeka Nwuigwe 3, Assistant Commissioner of Police 4. Dr. J. B. Mashall 5. Jane Ute Haruna Adamu 6. Aminu Adamu Aliyu 7. Hafsat Sadiq Soso and 7. Chima Obioha.
Others are 8. Kingsley Okoroh Ebibrah 9. Ishaku Umar 10. Ibrahim Ya’u 11. Maku Felix 12. Shuaibu Alhassan 13. Odera Ozobiolu Lynda 14. Obadare Ajibade 15. Abiodun Odunpade Kolade and 16. Michael Uche.
In its shocking findings, the Committee after investigation and careful study of evidence adduced and all the exhibits tendered discovered that the entire suit contracted in CV/3044/18 was a fraud and does not exist in FCT High Court record.
It was discovered that the purported suit was not assigned by the Hon. Chief Judge and not found on any High Court register except the mutilated register in the process unit.
It was also discovered that the Hon Chief Judge’s signature on the assignment directive was forged and dates on the receipt of payment, processes were all altered to October 2018 to make the purported suit filed on 25th September 2019 look like a pre-election matter.
The Committee discovered that out of the six receipts cross checked by the Head of revenue, 4 of them used in the suit were not allocated to FCT High Court suggesting that those receipts were used to perpetrate the fraud.
The Committee discovered that some staff of the High Court were part of the fraud.
The affected High Court staffs include the following:
- Kingsley Okoroh Ebibrah, Registrar
- Maku Felix- Senior Executive Officer GL 09
- Micheal Enuenwosu Uche, AEO GL 06
- Ibrahim Ya’u- Asst Chief Registrar GL 14
- Abiodun 0 Kolawole – Bailiff
- Ishaku Umar- Principal Registrar II GL 12, and,
- Shaibu Alhassan- Asst. Chief Registrar II GL 14.
The Committee stated their crimes as follows:
- Kingsley Okoroh Ebibrah – Registrar
The Committee believes the officer was part of the alteration to the date in the purported assignment sheet, before he minuted at the back to the Hon Judge.
The Officer appeared before the Committee on the 10/2/2020 and was directed to come with the court register on the second sitting.
He failed to appear during the two other sittings and even after putting a call to him, still failed to honour the invitation, thereby denying the Committee access to the court register. This is an indication that the suit was not registered in the court register and a proof of his involvement.
- Micheal Enuenwosu Uche, AEO GL 06
The Committee discovered that he was part of the fraud as the mutilation to the register in the process unit must have been carried out by him. What is more, he is the Officer in charge of the unit register and when hands writing of the staff In process unit were taking and compared to the mutilation to the unit register of 17/10/18, his writing was discovered to fit the mutilated ()/ number In exhibit 027
- Maku Felix- Senior Executive Officer GL 09
The Officer agreed that he signed and stamps on exhibit 06 which is the deposit slip from Aso Bank on the 12/4/2019. The Committee believes that since he agreed to have signed and stamped the document and having altered the dates on the front and the back pages of the document shows that he was aware and part of the fraud.
- Ibrahim Ya’u- Asst Chief Registrar GL 14
The committee believes that the officer stamped and signed exhibit 06 cut of carelessness while somebody else did the alteration. This is in view of the fact that his signature and date on exhibit 09 page 146 was not altered.
- Abiodun O. Kolawole – Bailiff
Exhibit 07 shows clearly that the processes and the hearing notices were not served on lNEC as claimed by the bailiff, Abiodun. However, the committee observed that the lawyers in the matter undertook the service of the processes and hearing notice and thereafter gave the bailiff copies of Proof of Service to put in the case file. This careless and nonchalant attitude revealed the involvement of the Bailiff in the purported service of hearing notices.
Allowing this to continue in most of the served processes is negligence and carelessness on the part of the bailiff.
- Ishaku Umar- Principal Registrar II GL 12
The Committee believes that desire for monetary gratification made the officer signed the processes without sighting or crosschecking the receipts. The fraudulent lawyer capitalized on that and brought the processes filed in Kubwa to him in Maitama for assessment.
- Shaibu Alhassan- Asst. Chief Registrar II GL 14
The Committee believes the officer was a victim of circumstance as he ignorantly certified exhibit 026 in the hope that since It had been certified by the registrar of court, it is a copy of the original. This is in view of the fact that it was the practice in Appeal Unit.
The Petitions/Complaints Committee, in its recommendations, demanded that serious sanctions be imposed on the court staff as will be revealed in subsequent news bulletins.
Recall that ElombahNews had reported that Dr Obinna Uzor forged and falsified court documents which he used to obtain a fraudulent judgement that purportedly sacked Senator Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressives Party [YPP] from the Senate.
The Appeal Court and Supreme Courts, however, quashed the said judgements in their separate rulings
It could also be recalled that ElombahNews had, on March 9, 2020, reported that Barrister Obinna Uzor’s lawyer, Eziafa Samuel Enwedo was arrested by Police operatives over conspiracy, fraud and falsification of legal documents.
Obinna Uzor and some other suspects are currently on the run and could not be reached for their response to the allegations.
