{"id":26576,"date":"2020-06-04T23:33:21","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T22:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=26576"},"modified":"2020-06-04T23:33:21","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T22:33:21","slug":"bayelsa-deputy-governor-storms-tribunal-to-defend-certificate-forgery-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=26576","title":{"rendered":"Bayelsa Deputy Governor Storms Tribunal to defend Certificate Forgery Allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u25aapetitioner backs out on allegation.<\/strong>
\nBy Yemi Oyeyemi<\/strong>, Abuja
\nThe Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo yesterday appeared before the state’s electora petition tribunal sitting in Abuja to defend the allegations of certificate forgery brought against him in respect of last year governorship election.
\nHis appearance was in response to a subpoena order on him by the tribunal to appear on Thursday to present the original of his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exemption certificate.
\nBut in a dramatic turn of event that unfolded, the petitioner and gubernatorial candidate of the Liberation Movement (LM) in the November 16, 2019 governorship election in Bayelsa, Mr Vijah Opuama declined to question the deputy on the certificate forgery accusation.
\nImmediately the deputy governor”s appearance was announced to the tribunal, counsel to the petitionerMr Pious Dande got up and announced that he was no longer needed as a witness of the petitioner.
\nHe withdrew the subpoena upon which the deputy governor was ordered to appear before the tribunal.
\nAccording to the petitioner, he no longer needed Ewhrudjakpo to testify for him as a witness before the tribunal.
\n\u201cI would like to apologise to the witness for bringing him all the way from Yenagoa to court on a subpoena that was never intended,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI equally apologise to the inner bar and indeed the bench as no human is above error.\u201d
\nResponding, Governor Douye Diri’s lawyer, Chief Chris Uche SAN, expressed disappointment, describing the development as \u201ca deliberate act of disrespect and the highest form of abuse of court process\u201d.
\nUche noted that the petitioner had on two occasions refused to proceed with the trial on grounds that the deputy governor “must come here in person, to testify as the petitioner\u2019s witness.\u201d
\nUche added that despite the ban on interstate travels and local flights, \u201cthe petitioners subjected the deputy governor to this serious ordeal and exposure to risk and hardship.\u201d
\nEwhrudjakpo’s lawyer, Chief Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume SAN, on his part prayed the tribunal to compel the petitioner to proceed to question the deputy governor on his allegations.
\nIn the alternative, the senior lawyer asked the court to award a consequential cost of N5 million against the petitioners.
\nIn a short ruling, Chairman of the three man panel, Justice Ibrahim Sirajo held that \u201cthe tribunal cannot dictate to a party how to conduct his case”, and dismissed the subpoena application without cost.
\nOpuama, is challenging Ewhrudjakpo\u2019s qualification to stand in the Bayelsa State governorship election, on the ground that the deputy governor submitted a forged exemption certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the election.
\nThe Tribunal had, in a supheona on Tuesday ordered the state\u2019s Deputy Governor to appear before it on Thursday to produce the original copy of his disputed certificate, following an application to that effect by the petitioner.
\nAlthough the deputy governor initially challenged the subpoena application through a motion but however changed his mind and presented himself in obedience to the order of the tribunal.
\nWhen the matter was called on Thursday, Ewhrudjakpo was in court and indicated his readiness to testify.
\nHowever, in an unexpected turn, the petitioner’s lawyer, Mr Pius Dande informed the tribunal of his client’s intentions to withdraw the subpoena.
\nAccording to Dande, there is an error on the face of the subpoena.
\nHe said the subpoena was intended for the deputy governor to tender document and not bring him to court.
\nDande said he has filed an application before the tribunal seeking to correct the error but Mohammed Sirajo, who led the three-man tribunal refused to grant the application.
\nFollowing the refusal of this request by the tribunal, Dande then made an oral application to withdraw the subpoena.
\nSpeaking to journalists after the court session, Ewhrudjakpo described the petitioner as one with intents to malign him.
\n\u201cThere are some persons in this country that should be respected, and that is people like us who don\u2019t have any skeleton in our cupboard,\u201d he said.
\nHe disclosed that he had to wave his immunity, drove by road and slept in Lokoja last night so as to make it in court today.
\n“I have come here to prove to the whole world that my certificates are intact, authentic and I have never altered any document and I will take the appropriate actions as far as this issues are concerned because defamation has come into this issue, maligning has come into this issue, libel has come into this issue.
\n\u201cYou don\u2019t expect a deputy governor to leave his state to come here only for you to have a rethink. This shows that the petition as we have always maintained is not only frivolous, deceitful, but it is being sponsored by some persons who don\u2019t want Bayelsa to progress.\u201d
\nThe deputy governor, who said he was ready to show to the court the original copy of his exemption certificate as issued to him by the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), said he never forged nor faked any of his certificates.
\nThe matter has been adjourned till June 9 for cross examination of the second petitioner’s witness, Mr Vije Okuwa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u25aapetitioner backs out on allegation. By Yemi Oyeyemi, Abuja The Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo yesterday appeared before the state’s electora petition tribunal sitting in Abuja to defend the allegations of certificate forgery brought against him in respect of last year governorship election. His appearance was in response to a subpoena order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jobs","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}