The people of Ado, Ogbadibo and Okpokwo Federal Constituency of Benue state and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, have been called upon to allow the Supreme Court decide the disputed Benue seat in the House of Representatives.
The Ado, Ogbadibo and Okpokwu Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives is being hotly contested at the Supreme Court by the incumbent lawmaker Hon. Hassan Saleh and his challenger, Mr. Christian Adabah Abah, both of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Ado, Ogbadibo Okpokwu Justice and Integrity Group (AOOJIG) which made the appeal warned that no party should be allowed short cut to the seat at the expense of the on-going court process.
National coordinator of the group, Mr. James Akoh, who led the members on a solidarity visit to Abuja expressed hope, trust and confidence that the Supreme Court will do justice to the disputed seat.
Akoh said that since the two gladiators in the tussle have joined issues with each other in law court, the judiciary must be allowed to adjudicate and take final decision in the matter.
In a letter to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, the group pleaded that the House leadership should not be manipulated to do any unlawful act adding that the outcome of the Supreme Court should be allowed to prevail.
Abah who was declared winner of the seat un-opposed in the 2015 general election was later denied the certificate of return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), following the confirmation by the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, Adamawa state that the National Diploma Certificate used to secure PDP nomination ticket was allegedly forged by Abah.
Hassan Saleh who came second in the PDP primary election for the Federal Constituency was allowed to take over the seat since Abah was found not qualified to have stood for the primary election.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja had upheld the forgery case against Abah following the police and the polytechnic reports that confirmed the forgery of the diploma certificate.
The appeal in respect of the case is pending at the Supreme Court for final resolution but the group demanded that the current position must be maintained until the Supreme Court has made the pronouncement.
The group’s letter to Dogara read in part: “The Ado, Ogbadibo, Okpokwu Justice and Integrity Group is a non-partisan group, it is a group that stands for justice, equity, truth, integrity and good governance. It is on this note that this solidarity march is to ask Mr. Christian Adabah Abah some key questions about his documents he submitted to INEC in 2011 and 2015.
“We asked for his documents from INEC they gave to us and we discovered that there is a forged National Diploma Certificate he claimed to have obtained in 1985. It was on the basis of the same forged certificate that PDP dropped from the race in 2011 and mandated Hon. Hassan Saleh to take over.”
“We have letter from the school to the Nigeria Police, a letter from the school to our lawyer signed by the Registrar and also a letter from the school’s head of exams and records that the National Diploma that Mr. Christian Adabah Abah submitted to INEC is a purely forged one.”
It further stated that: “The National Assembly is a place of law making and not for forgers of result, so this group wants Mr. Christian Abah to come out of his shell and tell Nigerians particularly the people of Ado, Ogbadibo Okpokwu Federal Constituency of Benue State the truth about his National Diploma with Certificate No. 000293 that he claimed to have obtained in 1985 from the Federal Polytechnic Mubi, Adamawa state.
“We urge the Honourable Speaker to remain resolute and steadfast and that certificate forgers should not intimidate him out of the path of truth and justice”
