Attempt by the Nigeria Police to arraign two members of staff of the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority , OGFZA, over allegations bordering on criminal forgery and falsification of official documents, were foiled again on Wednesday.
This was as the presiding Magistrate, Emmanuel Iyanna, was reportedly ill and therefore could not sit on Wednesday.
The Magistrate Court, sitting at Wuse Zone 6, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, has, therefore, slated October 10, 2023 for the arraignment of two members of staff of the authority.
Wednesday’s botched arraignment was the third aborted attempt to arraign the defendants this year alone.
Recall that the two OGFZA officials – Head of Legal Services and Secretary to OGFZA board, Wasiu Sule, and OGFZA’s Head of Human Resources, Alenju Ngofa, the first and second defendants, were accused of forgery and falsification of documents in a case involving a manager of the authority, Olufunmilayo David Omosule.
OGFZA and the nominal complainant, Omosule, had been locked in a legal battle over the legality or otherwise of his suspension, following a petition he authored against some management staff of the agency for alleged corruption.
Omosule had alleged that the defendants “wilfully and maliciously distorted his records to appear as though he does not possess any requisite qualification to be employed at OGFZA, or any qualification at all to be considered for promotion.”
Recall that the agency had, via a letter dated April 18, 2011, suspended Omosule as the manager of its Abuja office on the grounds that he refused to comply with its directives in a letter dated December 3, 2010, which directed him to present the originals of his credentials for verification during a promotion exercise.
Omosule, however, refuted the claim of the authority, stating that he actually made available to the organisation the Certified True Copies, CTCs, of his educational certificates and credentials, including GCE ‘O Level certificates, degree certificate and the National Youth Service Corps discharge certificate, through the defendants as instructed.
He had claimed that the originals of his credentials were misplaced in untraceable circumstances as of 2010, when the request to submit them was made, and averred that the CTCs of his certificates submitted to the agency were certified by the issuing institutions, which included the West African Examination Council and University of Ado-Ekiti, then Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti, respectively.
The claimant, upon his suspension, approached the National Industrial Court, NIC, Abuja, seeking reliefs and a declaration that he was still a member of staff of the organisation and entitled to all the rights, privileges and benefits due to him because of his employment.
Omosule had prayed the court for an order directing the defendants to reinstate him to the position of a director on grade level 17, a position he claimed his contemporaries were currently on, as well as an order directing the agency to pay all his outstanding salaries, benefits and entitlements since 2011.
His prayers were granted in May 2023, with the National Industrial Court, NIC, directing the authority to reinstate him and pay his backlog of salaries and allowances.
