Benue Council Boss arraigned in court over alleged forgery, Impersonation

By Gabriel Agbo, Abuja 

The executive chairman of Ado local government council in Benue State, Sunday Oche, was on Tuesday  arraigned before an FCT Magistrate Court, Dutse Abuja, for alleged  forgery and impersonation.

Oche is said to have committed the offence sometime in 2018 and accused of submitting a spurious document and forged signature of his opponent, Michael Unogwu to the Independent National Electoral Commission to contest in the 2023 House of Representatives for Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo.

The Nigeria police force  is prosecuting the accused on a two-count charge including forgery and lying under oath following a direct complaint brought before it by Michael Unogwu pursuant to section 89 of administration of criminal justice act 2015.

The charge filed before Justice A. Ilela revealed that sequel to the conduct of the Primary Elections by the APC ahead of the 2019 General Elections, the Complainant (Michael Unogwu) emerged as the candidate of the APC for the General Election.

The Complainant duly filled the necessary forms including form CF002C(i) and his name forwarded to INEC as the authentic candidate of the APC for the said election. 

However, after the submission of the name of the Complainant as its candidate for the election by the APC, the accused came up with a criminal design to unlawfully replace the Complainant as APC candidate for the election. 

In this quest, the Defendant criminally procured INEC Form CF 004A (i) being Notice of Withdrawal of Candidate, filled it with the Complainant’s information, unlawfully obtained the Complainant’s passport photograph and affixed it to the said form and then forged our clients signature on the said document. 

In additional to the above, the Defendant, Sunday Oche placed his passport photograph on the said INEC Form CF OO4A (i) as the candidate to replace the Complainant as candidate. 

Furthermore, the Defendant also forged a letter of withdrawal dated 15″ November, 2018 and addressed to the National Chairman of APC purportedly withdrawing the Compiainant’s candidature from the General Election.  

As a result of the above, the name of the Defendant was then forwarded to INEC as candidate of APC for the election. 

When the forgery was discovered, the Complainant wrote a letter to INEC to notify INEC that he did not withdraw as a candidate and that any letter submitted to INEC purporting that he has withdrawn as a candidate is a forged document. 

As a result, INEC wrote on 26” December, 2018 to the National Chairman of APC drawing the attention of the Party to the fact that the Complainant did not withdraw his candidature as claimed. 

Consequent upon, APC carried out its Investigation and discovered that the purported letter of withdrawal was a forgery and accordingly wrote to INEC on 17″ December, 2018 to inform INEC of its finding that the purported withdrawal was indeed forged.  

It further revealed that,  along with the forged documents, the Defendant also filled INEC Form CFOO1 and deposed to an affidavit in a bid to unlawfully replace the Complainant as the APC candidate for the election which clearly shows that he is the perpetrator of the forgery for his own benefit. 

The offence, according to the court affidavit, is contrary to section 362, 364 and 366  of penal code act, cap of 532 LFN (Abuja).

When the case came  up today(Tuesday) in Abuja, the presiding judge, Justice A. Ilela, ruled that the administrative bail granted by police to the accused person should subsist. 

The case has been  adjourned to October 14th 2025 for final judgement.