Yakubu Busari
The Plateau State National, State Houses Assembly Election Tribunal on Friday admitted the Nigeria Police Command by overriding the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respondents’ argument to stop the CID investigation department from subpoenaing a witness that is not competent to testify.
The Former Chairman of Langtang South LGA, Hon. Nancwat Bendal, and his party All Progressives Congress, APC, are before the State House of Assembly tribunal seeking the nullification of the victory of Hon.Nimchak S.Rims of the People Democratic Party, PDP, as the winner 18th Match, 2023 general elections held in Langtang South constituency.
ASP Mike David of the state CID Jos, Plateau State Command appeared with a subpoena letter that was addressed to the commissioner of Police which was tendered and admitted in evidence as exhibit P35 subject to the final address of counsels.
The witness was shown his disposition as he adopted it in evidence and marked as exhibit P28 that the criminal complaint was brought to the police by Mr. Solomon Langnim on 22/5/2023 in his paragraph 5,as the ASP Mike David confirmed that he conducted an investigation on page 2,10,11 of P25, P26.
Question: You were invited here on account of a subpoena to the CP dated 28/7/2023
Answer-“Yes “,
Question: will it be right to say that the investigation was 27/7/2023 yesterday,
Answer-yes,
when asked if the police charged and arraigned the 2nd respondent he answered is yes.
Do you have a copy here, he answered -no”.
Are there any judgments attached to this, he said No “,
when asked whether the second respondent wrote a statement, the police said yes but he couldn’t present it in evidence where the out of the investigation was P35, the following principals were listed in the documents, Mrs. Victoria Salma Manomi whose finding was directed Government College Amper instead of Government Teacher College Amper from 1979-1984.
According to him, the documents available in records of the GTC Amper shows that the two principals served at the same time in 1983-1984 respectively.
Mike David confirmed to the trial tribunal that the head of the legal charged the suspect to Plateau State High Court and the charge is still pending as I speak but they have yet to decide whether the allegation is true of falls
Investigation Police Officer in charge of investigating the certificate forgery case against Hon. Nimchak S. Rims gave evidence that might finally be exposed how Hon. Nimchak doctored the grade ll result as the ground 1 .
The subpoena witness Mr. Simon Manomi told the trial tribunal that the INEC conducted an election into the Langtang South constituency on April,18th,2023 but when shown to him exhibit P34 is a letter addressed to the commissioner for Education he said yes.
When asked whether the subpoenaed witness was related to the former Principal of Government Teacher College, Amper, he said no, and if she was still alive yes, and admitted to knowing.
The INEC, the first respondent during the cross-examination of Simon Manomi , with exhibit P25 which is the grade 11 certificate of Nimchak Rims , explained that the records revealed that he was admitted in 1979 and graduated in 1984 and sat for grade ll teacher certificate, yes. He stated that Rims has been educated up to grade ll .
However, during the cross-examination Manomi , says there are two national examinations one is National Teacher Institute, NTI, Kaduna which produced results for states.
This event took place in Court today when the Lawyer to Hon. Nancwat Bendal led to him the IPO in evidence.
The Police Officer gave his testimony on how he investigated the Forged Result and found out that it is actually forged.
However, before this, there were judicial fireworks in Court when Barr.S.S. Obende Esq ably representing Bendal vehemently opposed the respondents trying to stop the subpoenaed witness from coming to present the witness in the case based on some legal defect but the court overruled Hon. Rims Lawyer and allowed the witness to present all relevant documents from the police investigation.
The petitioners claimed that the testimony of the Plateau State Command might as well help the trial tribunal see the forged certificate of Hon. Nimchak S. Rims out of his present Office.
On the other hand, the Police filed a 10-count charge against Hon. Nimchak S. Rims on the alleged forgery pending before the High Court which may earn him about 50 years upon conviction as alleged by the petitioners.
