Judiciary
THE police filed criminal charges against a lawyer, James Idih and Otomiewo Ufuoma in a Magistrates’ Court in Abuja for fabricating false evidence against Architect Adamu Stephen Okunade.
According to the charge sheet No: CR/442/2020, the police claimed that Idih and Ufuoma allegedly tricked Moses Isha and Gideon Ajogi into signing witness statements on their behalf to defend a suit against Okunade.
The police alleged that Idih was said to have invited Isha and Ajogi to his office in 2018 to sign a statement to defend a suit fraudulently fabricated to support a petition with the intention to cause injury on Okunade.
The police averred that the evidence fabricated against the complainant, was willfully and intentionally executed with the sole aim to bring his profession, architecture, to shame.
The police further revealed in the charge that the offence contravened Section 158(2) of the Penal Code.
Some of the charges read in part: “Sometime around November 2017 and early 2018, the suspect with the intent to maliciously injure the complainant by way of fabricating false evidence, invited to his chamber Ajogi and Isha on separate dates to sign witness statements he made on their behalf to defend a suit.
‘’The defendant, without knowledge of the said Ajogi and Isha, however, converted the respective statements signed in his chamber to witness statement on oath to support a fictitious petition dated Feb. 27, 2018 to the Secretary-General, Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), against the complainant.”
No date has however, been fixed for hearing of the suit.
NAN
– Jan. 15, 2021 @ 14:15 GMT /
Tags: False evidence: Police slams criminal charges against lawyer one other
