Obaseki loses critical case at Appeal Court

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Obaseki loses case at Court of Appeal

Governor Godwin Obaseki has lost his legal bid to stay proceedings at Federal High Court in a case of certificate forgery.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Wednesday dismissed Obaseki’s application.

It ordered him to return to the lower court for the hearing of the suit, which was adjourned indefinitely on Tuesday.

At the lower court, the APC and William Edobor are praying for an order disqualifying Obaseki from contesting the Edo governorship election on the grounds that he forged his certificate.

The plaintiffs, apart from Obaseki, joined the Peoples Democratic Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The plaintiffs also claimed that there are discrepancies in the subjects Obaseki claimed he passed in the WASSCE conducted by the West African Examination Council.

Obaseki had initially challenged the competence of APC’s counter-reply to his defence.

He asked the court to remove some paragraphs in the plaintiffs’ statement.

But in a ruling delivered on December 2, the presiding judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, dismissed the governor’s motion.

Obaseki appealed the judgement, causing the judge to suspend the case at the lower court indefinitely.

In a short ruling on Tuesday in Abuja, Justice Ahmed Mohammed adjourned the suit on the grounds of an appeal filed by Obaseki at the Court of Appeal.

Justice Mohammed opined that since there was an interlocutory appeal pending at the appellate court, the trial court had to tarry awhile since it had been notified of the pendency of the appeal.

He said moreso since the record of appeal had already been transmitted and served on all the parties.

He added that the trial court had to await the decision of the appellate court in order not to embark on a collision course with it.

“Where a lower court is aware of the existence of an application for stay, it will be wrong for the trial court to proceed to hear the suit the application is seeking to stay proceedings on.

“In the instant case, in addition to the interlocutory appeal, there is an application to stay proceedings.

“The suit is hereby adjourned sine die (indefinitely),” the judge said.