WAEC letter admitted as exhibit in forgery case against federal lawmaker

A letter written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, by the West African Examination Council, WAEC, over the investigation of a federal lawmaker, Nse Ekpenyong, for forgery, was on Friday admitted as an exhibit by the Federal High Court, Uyo.

Mr. Ekpenyong, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, represents Oron Federal Constituency, Akwa Ibom State, in the House of Representatives.

He is standing trial for the alleged forgery of a WAEC, certificate, and a national diploma certificate of the Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, Abia State.

He was first arraigned on March 30.

According to a court document, the lawmaker filed the “forged” documents with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, when he contested the House of Representatives election in 2015.

One of the EFCC operatives who investigated the alleged forgery, Yapo Aminu, told the court about the correspondences between the commission and WAEC in the course of the investigation.

The court then admitted as an exhibit a letter from WAEC which stated that it issued the contentious certificate to a person bearing the name “Nse Bassey Ekpenyong”, but that the passport size photograph on it wasn’t a genuine one, as it was superimposed on it.

Okon Bassey, who is the second defendant in the case, is alleged to have written the examination for the lawmaker.

The EFCC also tendered as exhibits, 11 items – including a passport size photograph of the lawmaker – which they claimed was recovered from Mr. Bassey’s house.

The defence lawyer, Ekpenyong Ntekim, objected to the admission of the search warrant on Mr. Bassey’s house as an exhibit. But the judge, Ijeoma Ojukwu, overruled him.

Justice Ojukwu, however, upheld the defence’s objection against the admission of the second defendant’s bank statements as exhibits, on the grounds that they (defence lawyers) were not served with copies of the documents.

The case was, therefore, adjourned to November 22 and 23 to enable the prosecution to send copies of the second defendant’s bank statements to the defence lawyers.

Newsflash Nigeria is an online newspaper that is developed and written exclusively for Nigerians. It’s packed with up-to-the-minute Local and National Economy News, Share & Capital Market, Health, Sports, Education, Technology, Business and Opinions.

To make further advert enquiries or place an order, please contact us at [email protected] and +2348053316946 and WhatsApp number 08033546732