The high profile case of certificate forgery against the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde has taken a new dimension following the submission of the Lagos State Attorney-General, Mr. Ade Ipaye that the evidences that were supplied against the Customs boss by Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, is not sufficient to flag-off prosecution.
The high profile case of certificate forgery against the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde has taken a new dimension following the submission of the Lagos State Attorney-General, Mr. Ade Ipaye that the evidences that were supplied against the Customs boss by Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, is not sufficient to flag-off prosecution.
Mr. Keyamo has been on the certificate forgery case for almost four years, but the Lagos number one law officer, in a recent written address that was filed before a Lagos High Court faulted Keyamo’s submissions. The address was in response to the request by Keyamo for an order of mandamus to compel the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to prosecute Dikko for the alleged offence.
The presiding judge, Justice Yetunde Idowu, had on December 13, 2011 granted Keyamo leave to apply for the mandamus.
Idowu also ordered Keyamo to serve the processes of the suit, initially brought as an ex-parte motion, on the DPP.
In the written address, a copy of which was sighted by our correspondent, the Lagos Attorney General prayed the court to strike out Keyamo’s suit.
According to him, “the case of the applicant is predicated on his letter dated July 19, 2011…The Respondent considered the application and was of the view that the information did not contain material evidence to sustain prosecution.“The suit as constituted therefore has no foundation either in law or in fact and it is deserving of being struck out in limine.”
He stated that, contrary to applicant’s claim, the respondent – the DPP – had not deliberately decided not to prosecute Dikko.
The DPP, in an 11-paragraph affidavit dated December 30, 2011 and deposed to by a counsel in the state Ministry of Justice, Olateju Taiwo, stated that the reliefs being sought by the applicant was premature as the report of police investigation was being awaited.
She also stated that Keyamo only supplied copies of the allegedly forged certificates as evidence without any confirmation of the authenticity or otherwise of the claim by the purported issuing authorities – the Nigerian Institute of Management and the West African Examination Council.
However, hearing has been fixed for January 11, 2012.
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