Alleged perjury: Court adjourns suit against Matawalle to Oct. 31

The Federal High Court sitting in Gusau on Thursday adjourned to Oct. 31, the suit filed by Northern Youth Assembly, accusing Gov. Bello Matawalle of perjury.

Justice Aminu Bappa-Aliyu adjourned the case to enable the court rule on the application of the Action People’s Party (APP) seeking to be joined as third claimant in the substantive suit.

In the substantive suit, the plaintiffs claimed that there were discrepancies in the academic and birth certificates Matawalle presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest in the 2023 poll.

The case, earlier filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, was transferred to the Federal High Court in Gusau.

It was listed for mention on Oct. 4, and adjourned to Oct. 19, for further mention.

When the case came up on Oct 19, the judge again, adjourned the matter to Oct. 27, for definite hearing.

At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Mr Usman Ndaliman, Counsel to the APP drew the attention of the court to an application filed by his client seeking to be joined in the suit as claimant.

Nadaliman said his motion followed an application dated Oct. 20 and filed Oct. 21, before the court.

He said that the APP’s application was accompanied by an affidavit and a written address.

Counsel to Matawalle and three other respondents, acknowledged that they had been served with copies of the application.

The counsel did not object to the application, and the court, therefore adjourned to Monday, Oct. 31 to rule on the APP’s application.

Counsel to the first respondent, Matawalle, Ahmed Raji, SAN, however, told the court that he had filed a motion of preliminary objection on the matter.

He said that the “plaintiffs were not known to law” as they were not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission as required by law.

The documents provided by the plaintiffs contained in suit number FHC/GS/CS/27/2022, claimed there were three different dates of birth submitted on three occasions to INEC by Matawalle between 2015 and 2022.

The petitioners claimed that the documents Matawalle presented to INEC for the 2015, 2019 and 2023 elections regarding his secondary school qualifications were also not the same.

They prayed the court to declare a case of perjury and non-possession of valid minimum secondary school certificate against the Zamfara governor.