Court adjourns certificate forgery suit against Adeleke indefinitely

Meanwhile, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Bwari, Abuja on Tuesday adjourned indefinitely the suit filed against the Senator Adeleke for alleged certificate forgery.

Two plaintiffs had filed the suit, seeking the disqualification of Adeleke from participating in the governorship election on the grounds of not possessing requisite educational qualification.

But the suit was adjourned indefinitely by Justice Othman Musa following the non appearance in court of the plaintiffs as well as their lawyer, Bankole Akomolafe.

The two plaintiffs, Wahab Raheem and Adam Omosalewa Habeeb had through their counsel, Akomolafe instituted the suit in Abuja, praying Justice Musa to disqualify Adeleke from contesting the Osun State governorship election on the grounds that he was educated up to secondary school as he claimed in his nomination form, CF001.

Apart from Adeleke, others joined as defendants are the Peoples Democratic Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

They urged the court to prohibit PDP from nominating Adeleke as its candidate and INEC from recognizing Adeleke as a contestant in the election.

Although, Justice Musa in a ruling in an exparte motion on September 11, refused to stop Adeleke from parading himself as PDP candidate, he however ordered the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to produce in court on September 19, its ledger for the 1981 examination which Adeleke had claimed he participated.

In compliance with the court order, WAEC had on September 19, served the court and other parties in the suit with its 1981 exams ledger which confirmed Adeleke as one of their candidates in the exams with centre number: 19645 and candidate number 149 at Ede Muslim High School, prompting further hearing in the suit to be fixed for Tuesday.

But when the matter came up on Tuesday, Chief Nathaniel Oke (SAN) announced his appearance for Adeleke and Emmanuel Enoidem for PDP, while the plaintiffs and their lawyer who jointly fixed the hearing date did not appear in court without any explanation.

Although lawyer to Adeleke and PDP urged the court to dismiss the suit in its entirety due to the non appearance of the plaintiffs and their lawyer without any notification, Justice Musa however, ruled that the matter be adjourned indefinitely and that parties wound be contacted when a new date is fixed.