Court orders arrest of Edo House of Reps member over alleged forgery of tax document

A Benin High Court, presided over by Justice Esther Ikponmwen on Thursday, issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Philip Shaibu, a federal lawmaker representing Etsako Federal Constituency in the National Assembly over his absence from court.

BusinessDay reports that the federal lawmaker was facing a six-count charge instituted against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over alleged forgery of tax document.

The APC lawmaker was alleged to have committed the offence in 2006, while contesting for Etsako Constituency 11 seat in the Edo State House of Assembly.

The accused was alleged by ICPC to have in November 2006 lied to officers of the Edo State Board of Internal Revenue that he was an employee of a certain Zaknote Nigeria Ventures Limited from 2003 to 2006, to fraudulently obtain a tax clearance certificate from the revenue board.

The case, which had been ongoing since 2013 before Justice Esther Edigin of the Benin High Court, was however reassigned to Justice Esther Ikponmwen after the former withdrawn from the case.

At the resumed hearing yesterday, counsel to ICPC, G. O Igbadumhe, in his application, urged the court to issue warrant of arrest for the accused for his failure to appear in court.

In granting the application, Ikponmwen ordered that the accused be produced in court by the authorities of Nigeria Police in the next sitting day. She however adjourned the case to next week Thursday.