Operatives of the Nigeria Police have filed criminal charges against a lawyer, James Idih and Otomiewo Ufuoma before the Magistrate Court in Abuja for fabricating false evidence against Architect Adamu Stephen Okunade.
According to the charge sheet with charge no: CR/442/2020, the suspects were alleged to have tricked one Moses Isha and Gideon Ajogi into signing witness statements on behalf of the defendants to defend a suit against the complainant.
The defendants were said to have some time in 2018 invited Isha and Ajogi to his office to sign a statement to defend a suit fabricated to support a petition with the intention to cause injuries on Arch. Okunade.
The Police averred that the evidence fabricated against the complainant, who is a respected member of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), was wilfully and intentionally executed with the sole aim to bring the component of his profession to shame.
The police further revealed in the charge that the offences contravene section 158(2) of the penal code.
Some of the charges read: ‘’Sometimes around Nov 2017 and early 2018, the defendant with the intent to maliciously injure the person of the complainant by way of fabricating false evidence invited to his chamber Gideon Ajogi and Moses Isha on separate dates to sign witness statements he made on their behalf to defend a suit.
‘’The defendant without knowledge of the said Gideon Ajogi and Moses Isha, however, converted the respective statements signed in his chamber to witness statement on oath to support a fictitious petition dated Feb 27, 2018 to the secretary-general of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), against the complainant.
‘’The fictitious Petition dated February 27, 2018, was supported by witness statements on oath of Otomiewo Ufaoma, with purported witness the statement on oath of Moses Isah and Ajogi Gideon To fraudulent misrepresent and support the petition.
‘’The alleged deponents to the statements on oath dated 26/02/2018 in support of the petition have by separate affidavits dated 14/01/2020 and 03/03/2020 before the Commissioner for Oath of the Federal Capital High Court denounced knowledge to their alleged statements on oath in support of the fictitious Petition’’.
Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
