Tribunal judgements: PDP, NNPP lawmakers dominate certificate forgery scandal

<p>Certificate forgery allegations featured prominently again as election petition tribunals delivered judgements across the country.</p>, <p>Allegations on forged (or missing) issue in Nigeria’s political scene since 1999 when the country returned to democracy.</p>, <p>Although not all the allegations resulted in proven cases of certificate forgery, as some cases were dismissed in court due to a lack of evidence, a few others were rightly found guilty of this infraction.</p>, <p>However, the trend has continued unabated with the recent judgements emanating from the various election petition tribunals on the outcome of 2023 general elections.</p>, <p>DAILY POST reports that some members of the National Assembly were sacked by tribunals over certificate forgery. However, it is believed that the last is yet to be heard as the affected lawmakers are appealing the judgements.</p>, <p>Checks by DAILY POST showed that the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunals across the country have upturned the election victories of 25 House of Representatives members and five (5) Senators.</p>, <p>A breakdown showed that the PDP has lost 12 members in the House, closely followed by the Labour Party, LP, with 10 members, while the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, and the APC have lost three and one members, respectively.</p>, <p>However, both the duo of the NNPP and PDP federal lawmakers have been alleged by the tribunal to have forged their certificates.</p>, <p></p>, <p>The tribunal sacked Idris Dankawu of the NNPP for forging his West African School Certificate, WAEC, which he submitted for election into the Kumbotso Federal House of Representatives Constituency of Kano State.</p>, <p>Munir Babba Danagudi of the APC who contested against Dankawu, had filed a petition, alleging that Dankawu presented a fraudulent secondary school certificate to gain admission into Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Kaduna.</p>, <p>The chairman of the three man panel, Justice I.P. Chima in the verdict declared that: “Idris Dankawu of NNPP forged hi