Forgery: AGF accuses senator of fighting Ekweremadu’s battle

The office of the Attorney-General of the Federation has responded to a suit, seeking to stop investigation into alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Orders 2015, describing it as one filed by the plaintiff, Senator Gilber Nnaji, to fight the battle of the Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu. The Ministry of Justice’s opposition to the suit is contained in the notice of preliminary objection, filed through its Director, Civil Litigation, Mr. Taiwo Abidogun, asking the court to strike out the suit for not disclosing the personal interest the plaintiff seeks to protect. Ekweremadu has been at the centre of the controversy surrounding the allegedly forged Senate rules used for the election, which produced Dr. Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and Ekweremadu as his deputy on June 9 shortly after the proclamation of the 8th Senate. The police have in the course of investigating the forgery allegation, invited some principal officers and management staff members of the National Assembly for interrogation. Nnaji, who is Ekweremadu’s co-Senator from Enugu State, had filed the suit asking the court to stop the police investigation on the grounds that it “is inspired by a devious petition by the Secretary of the Unity Forum Senators, solely aimed at unjustly incriminating the office of the Deputy President of the Senate”. But in its preliminary objection, the Ministry of Justice contended that the plaintiff had not shown sufficient interest which conferred on him the right to institute the action. “However, in the light of the foregoing, we submit that it will be in the interest of justice for this matter to be struck out in its entirety as the plaintiff’s suit has not disclosed or shown that he has any personal remedy arising from the disclosed cause of action that exceeds that of Senator Ike Ekweremadu or the Senate as an entity. We urge your Lordship to uphold same,” a written address accompanying the Senator’s notice of preliminary objection read in part. The address added that Nnaji had no justification for instituting the suit since he was only inaugurated as a member of the Senate after the alleged forgery had taken place. It read, “My Lord, by paragraphs 16 and 24, most especially paragraph 24, the said standing orders, the subject of the investigation came into the hands of the plaintiff (Nnaji) for the first time when the house was inaugurated. “How then can the plaintiff be justified in challenging the investigation into an allegation that occurred prior to his inauguration and how has it affected his interest? “We further submit that this is a suit that should rightly be instituted by the Senate as an entity or better still by Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who, by the plaintiff’s affidavit at paragraph 27, is identified as the ultimate targeted of the petition.” The police, joined as the first defendants in the suit, had also filed similar notice of preliminary objection, contending that Nnaji lacked the legal competence to institute the suit. Justice Gabriel Kolawole on August 4 fixed September 8 for the hearing of an application filed by another Senator, Suleiman Hunkuyi, seeking to be joined as a defendant in the suit.