The legal team of the embattled Minister of Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, who is at the centrepoint of a major certificate forgery scandal, fumed at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday over PREMIUM TIMES investigative reportage of the matter.
Mr Nnaji’s lead lawyer, Sebastian Hon, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), referred to PREMIUM TIMES investigation during the court’s first hearing session on the civil suit regarding the minister’s academic records at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).
The PREMIUM TIMES report published on Saturday revealed that Mr Nnaji forged the UNN and national youth service certificates he submitted to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate for his appointment as a minister in 2023.
The report validated the certificate forgery speculations that have swirled around the minister since he became a public official in 2023.
In September, the minister instituted a suit at the Federal High Court to seek an array of orders imposing restraints on his academic records at the university.
He sued the Minister of Education, the National Universities Commission (NUC), UNN, the university’s vice-chancellor, Simon Ortuanya, and other officials.
The first hearing in the suit came up before the judge, Hauwa Yilwa, on Monday, when Mr Hon represented the embattled minister.
The university and its officials, the 3rd to 7th respondents, were represented by E.M. Asogwa, while the 1st and 2nd respondents (the Minister of Education and the NUC) were not represented.
Mr Hon told the court that all the parties had been served.
He then launched into fuming over the PREMIUM TIMES investigation. The senior lawyer told the court that “although the 3rd to 7th respondents were served on 29 September, the 4th respondent wrote an official letter to PREMIUM TIMES, an online newspaper, on 2 October, a few days after being served, claiming that the applicant was not a graduate of the university.”
Mr Hon said the “newspaper subsequently published a damaging statement against the applicant on 4 October, titled, ‘Investigation: The serial certificate forger in President Tinubu’s cabinet’.”
He argued that even though the court had earlier refused some of the applicants’ prayers, the respondents failed to maintain the status quo after being served.
He added that PREMIUM TIMES went ahead and published a damaging report against the applicant, contrary to expectations that once leave is granted, all parties must stay further action. He disclosed that the applicant would file further processes.
However, the lawyer to the university and its officials, Mr Asogwa, told the court that while he would not add credibility to Mr Hon’s claims, his team would properly advise their “clients to maintain status quo pending the substantive hearing.”
Responding to Mr Hon, the judge asked him to raise his complaints at the appropriate time.
The lawyer said he would submit a new filing, and the judge then adjourned the matter until 10 November.
