Adamawa: Court Dismisses Case Of Certificate Forgery Against Member House Of Assembly

Musa Isa Ahmed
The Upper Area Court I yola in Adamawa state on Monday dismissed a suit instituted against the incumbent Member of the House of Assembly, Hon. Shuaibu Babas, over alleged certificate forgery.
Hon. Babas who represents Fufore Gurin constituency under the platform of the opposition All Progress Congress(APC) at the hallowed chamber, had been standing trial before the court since April, 2019, over alleged certificate forgery.
The Lawmaker was dragged to the court by the Candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general election, Hon. Abdulazeez Baba, challenging his first school leaving certificate.
Earlier, Hon. Abdulazeez told the court that the certificate which the incumbent Legislator used in contesting election which consequently saw to his emergence as the Honourable Member representing Fufore Gurin were forged or not genuine.
In his effort to establish his case of criminal offence against the state Legislator, Hon. Abdulazeez went on and testified as a witness, while tendering both oral and documentary evidence to serve as exhibit to prove his case.
It was based on the aforementioned that the complainant informed the court that the Legislator had committed criminal offence of forgery and prayed it to convict him accordingly.
On his part, Hon. Babas through his Counsel, U. B. Ismail, raised no case submission on sole issue as to whether there was even a case for the defendant to answer, arguing that someone who alleges fake documents must by law produce the original document that was forged and the forged ones.
He insisted that even the documents alleged to have been forged or not genuine were not tendered as exhibit in court, saying there was nothing before the court to show that the offence of forgery has been committed by the defendant, and however prayed the court to dismiss the case for lacking in merit.
Delivering its ruling/judgement on the matter on Monday, the court presided over by Magistrate Mohammed Abubakar, upheld the no case submission of the defendant and dismissed the case in its entirety, saying that the Complaint has woefully failed to establish the case against the defendant.
Magistrate Abubakar, declared that all both oral and documentary evidence tendered by the complaint failed to link the defendant with the certificate forgery, saying that hearsay evidence is not admissible in the court of law.
The Honourable Judge further discharged and acquitted the defendant and said any party that is not satisfied with the ruling/judgement has the right of appeal to the state High Court of Justice.