Saturday, November 9, 2024 - Criminal summons brought against Senator Monday Okpebholo, Governor-elect of Edo State concerning alleged certificate forgery have been dismissed.
The criminals summons was dismissed on Friday by an Abuja High Court.
Justice Charles Agbaza ruled that the entire proceedings before
Magistrate Abubakar Mukhtar of the Wuse Magistrate Court in Abuja were void,
stating that the summons was issued beyond his jurisdiction and contained
errors of law.
Justice Agbaza agreed with Okpebholo that both the proceedings and the
criminal summons were illegal, unconstitutional, and violated his fundamental
human right to a fair hearing as guaranteed under Section 36 of the 1999
Constitution (as amended).
Recall that Magistrate Mukhtar had ordered Okpebholo to appear in court
on September 20, just before the governorship election in Edo, over allegations
of a false statement regarding his date of birth made by Aginbatse, a state
indigene.
He faced accusations of providing conflicting dates of birth in his
nomination forms submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission,
INEC, for the election.
Okpebholo’s defence counsel, Andrew Emwanta, in a motion dated and filed
on October 21, argued that the action was intended to prevent Okpebholo from
running as a candidate in the September 21 poll and to disqualify him on false
pretences.
He also sought a declaration that the entire proceedings and criminal
summons were illegal, unconstitutional, and violated his client’s fundamental
human rights.
He also requested a prohibition order to stop the magistrate from
continuing with the case, No. CR/W22/816/2024, initiated by Aginbatse.
Emwanta argued that the magistrate did not have jurisdiction to handle
this matter, as it was a pre-election issue, and Section 29 of the law grants
jurisdiction to the Federal High Court.
In his judgement, Justice Agbaza agreed with Emwanta that the magistrate
should have taken into account the evidence presented by Okpebholo before
issuing such an order.
The judge, therefore, prohibited the magistrate from proceeding with the
case.
However, he said that the magistrate had the discretion to set a hearing
date for the matter before him.
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