The Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial Zone, Lawal Adamu Usman, has denied allegations of a forged academic certificate as part of documents presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the 2023 election process.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) is challenging the victory of the PDP senator on the grounds that he did not attend some schools he claimed in his INEC nomination form.
One of the witnesses, a former student of the Department of Public Administration at Ameer Shehu ldris College of Advanced Studies in Zaria, Halima Ibrahim Ndanusa, claimed in a recent story published by Leadership Newspapers that the serving Senator used her result to gain admission into a university.
In his reaction, Senator Usman, in a two-page letter through his solicitors, Messrs. E. N. Ogbu & Associates, said the story, published on July 12, 2023, with the caption: “Kaduna Senator Used My Result For Varsity Admission, Witness Tells Tribunal,” is libelous and defamatory, thus threatening legal action.
The Senator, who demanded immediate retraction of the story, filed for damages in the sum of N1b against the newspaper for publishing an article targeted at tarnishing his image and reputation.
According to the letter, the contents of the said newspaper’s publication portrayed Senator Usman as one, who made illegal and fraudulent use of a certificate belonging to one Halima Ibrahim Ndanusa to gain admission into a university.
The letter further stated: “And further went on in the reportage to add that the said Ndanusa made the said piece of malicious information known in an appearance at the Election Petitions Tribunal while seeking justice and prosecution of the offenders for using her results fraudulently as captured in Paragraphs 1, 2, and 10 of the online publication made available to us by our client.”
While disclosing that the said Ndanusa was neither subpoenaed nor present at the tribunal, as confirmed by The Guardian, the Senator’s solicitors further averred that Senator Usman is of the firm contention that the veracity or otherwise of the entire reportage captioned herein are proceedings of a tribunal, which are available to the general public as they relate to what transpired before the tribunal in actual fact.
