The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to nullify the Certificate of Return issued to Christian Abah for the Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal ‎Constituency seat in the House of Representatives.‎

Abah was dragged to court by Hassan Saleh who competed against him in the Peoples Democratic Party primaries in Benue. Saleh told Justice Adeniyi Ademola that Abah was not eligible to run for the seat because his Ordinary National Diploma certificate in Accountancy, purportedly obtained from the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi in 1985, was forged.

Justice Ademola in his ruling, said that the plaintiff has successfully established the forgery allegation, in part because there is an earlier judgment of the National/State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, ‎sitting in Makurdi, delivered on September 6, 2011, and a letter by the Registrar of the polytechnic, Mr. Suleiman Buba, which both affirmed that the certificate to be a forgery.

The court ordered the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, to immediately open prosecution proceedings against Abah for forgery and perjury.

Abah had been declared unopposed by the PDP and elected, being the only candidate presented for the March 28 election. In January, INEC declared him as the only validly nominated candidate for that seat, meaning he was the first person assured of a seat in the general elections.

The court said all the votes Abah received in the PDP primary, held on December 6 last year as wasted and pronounced Saleh, who came second as the winner of the primary.

Justice Ademola ordered INEC to issue a fresh Certificate of Return to Saleh and for the incoming Speaker of the ‎8th National Assembly to swear in Saleh as the member representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal ‎Constituency.

The presiding judge also ordered that the processes filed in the suit as well as the judgment be served on the Nigerian Bar Association, the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee with a view of taking appropriate sanctions against Abeh, as well as imposed a N450,000 fine on the three defendants – the PDP, INEC and Abah in favour of the plaintiff.

The court berated INEC and the PDP for promoting “a culture of impunity” by their failure to disqualify Abah from participating in the election.