Election Tribunal: Witness Accuses Kaduna Senator Of Result Forgery
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT – Revelations at the election Tribunals sitting on petitions over the 2023 general polls continue to paint Nigeria as the theatre of absurdities with controversies raging about forged documents submitted by many candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Latest on these avalanche of alleged forgery cases involves claims that a serving senator from Kaduna State used a phony result to gain admission into a Nigerian university.
In the centre of this unfortunate drama is former student of the Department Public Administration of Ameer Shehu ldris College of Advanced Studies, Zaria, Halima Ibrahim Ndanusa who alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s Senator Lawal Adamu Usman is guilty of identity theft.
Appearing before the Election Petitions Tribunal in Kaduna, Ndanusa expressed deep shock at discovering that a serving senator altered her names on the Diploma certificate acquired from the College in 2013 to allegedly gain admission into Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
The witness attended the Ameer Shehu College of Advanced Studies, an affiliate of ABU, Zaria, between 2011 and 2013 with registration number A11/PA/1147 where she obtained the certificate.
According to her; “I cried profusely when I heard that a Senator used my hard-earned result to gain admission into ABU while I wandered around because of a lack of job. I studied for two years through sleepless nights of hard work and research, but someone just forged the result”
Ndanusa, who spoke with journalists after the court session, expressed shock that those with fake documents and results still “shamelessly” seek to lead the people, even as honest and real owners of such documents wallow in unemployment and abject poverty.
While seeking justice and prosecution of the offenders for using her results fraudulently, Ndanusa also called on the management of ABU to expunge her diploma certificate from the records of alleged graduate.
It is on record that the institution was subpoenaed by the Tribunal to testify in a petition filed by Muhammad Dattijo of the All Progressive Congress (APC) before Kaduna Central Senatorial District Election Tribunal against Senator Lawal Usman of the PDP.
Senator Usman is facing a three-count charge at the Tribunal, including his qualification to contest election with alleged forged certificates as well as substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
Testifying before the Tribunal on Wednesday, the College provost, Dr Richard Ogunleye Ibrahim submitted thus; “We have thoroughly checked our records for year 2011/2013 academic session and we do not have a Student with the name Lawal Adamu with registration number A11/PA/1147.
“However, we can confirm that we have a female student; Halima Ibrahim Ndanusa, as the bona-fide student with the same registration number A11/PA/1147 that graduated in the period under review”.
