A Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State on Wednesday dismissed a name forgery suit against the Spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu (APC, Abia).
A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia, Okey Ezeala filed a case against Kalu claiming that there was a name discrepancy in his academic certificates and he joined Chima Anyaso, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who lost to the lawmaker at the 2019 poll.
Delivering the judgment, Justice A.O. Chijioke described the suit as malicious and agreed with all the arguments of Kalu’s lead Counsel, K.C. Nwufor (SAN) that the claimant ought to have produced the original bearer of the name which the lawmaker was alleged to have impersonated.
The Presiding Judge affirmed that: “The matter is a pre-election matter and therefore, statute barred and frivolous.
He maintained that Benjamin Kalu fully complied with the law in his change of name.
“The claimant failed to differentiate or prove his claims of forgery and impersonation against Rep. Benjamin Kalu,” he said.
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The court also described as improper and malicious attempts by Anyaso to join the case having exhausted all his rights in the matter, and having lost at the election, election tribunal and court of appeal.
Reacting to the judgment, Kalu said: “As I have always said, God is the God of justice. As a believer in God, I was confident that He would not allow injustice to be meted against me. Also, as a product of the judiciary, I had absolute confidence in the ability of the judiciary to sustain justice, especially when the facts speak so clearly for themselves.”
He further said: “I have experienced the competence of the judiciary from the time of the elections, tribunal and court of appeal. So, I was certain that the judiciary would sustain their fairness and gladly they did not disappoint me. I thank my supporters who believed in me, who stood by me and showed great concern during this period.
“It has been a horrible two years, going in and out of court. The idea of this litigation was to distract me from working for the people of Bende; however, I have refused to be distracted. As you can see, I am currently inspecting sites for new projects and several of the completed projects are set to be commissioned soon”.
