Gyang Bere, Jos

A Federal High sitting in Jos has sacked a Plateau State lawmaker, Ibrahim Baba Hassan, over a certificate he claimed to have obtained from the University of Jos.

The lawmaker who represents Jos North-North in the Plateau State House of Assembly was dragged to court since 2015 by Abdul Nasir Saleh, challenging the authenticity of his Diploma certificate in Business Administration which he claimed to have obtained from the University of Jos.

Saleh contested party primaries with the sacked lawmaker on the platform of All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2015 where he emerged second.

The presiding Judge, Justice Musa Kurya, on Tuesday in his judgement on the matter said there was no trace of proof that the Diploma certificate submitted to INEC by Hon. Hassan was genuinely obtained from the University Jos.

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Kurya said based on the direct and oral evidence submitted by the registrar of UNIJOS before the court, it was true that the certificate presented by the embattled lawmaker to INEC in 2015 was not obtained from the said institution, adding that the evidence given by the registrar “is true and uncontroversial.”

The Judge said: “I wonder a person whose Diploma certificate is proved to have been forged sitting and making laws. I wonder the laws that he will make for the development of his constituency and by extension, the state as a whole.”

Kurya further in his ruling granted all the prayers sought by the plaintiff.

He then granted “N5million being the total legal fees for prosecuting this matter from inception,” and “N25m as general damages and N150,000.00 being the cost of filing this action.”