Forgery: Edo LP Chieftain Petitions PSC Chair Over Alleged Cover-up On Abure

A chieftain of the Labour Party (LP) in Edo State and House of Representatives candidate for the Orhionmwon/Uhunmwonde federal constituency in the 2023 general election, Mr Imasuen Murphy, has petitioned the chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Solomon Arase, accusing one DSP Uyi of protecting the national chairman of the party, Julius Abure, against prosecution on alleged forgery against him despite the Police investigation and court rulings establishing the case against him.

In letter dated October 16, 2023 and marked ECH/PSC/2023, Murphy through his lawyers, Ekhuemelo & Ekhuemelo Law Firm, said he emerged as the House of Representatives candidate for his constituency but that he was allegedly replaced by Abure through a forged letter of withdrawal to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), forged signature and a forged court affidavit of purported withdrawal from the race.

He said the allegation of forgery against the LP national chairman was confirmed by the Chief Registrar of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) when the court claimed through a correspondence that there was no affidavit of withdrawal in its record as claimed by the documents Abure allegedly submitted to INEC and that he also emerged victorious up to the Supreme Court when he challenged his substitution in the courts.

All these and others, he said, were part of the documents he submitted to the DIG Investigation at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) in Abuja, which was then headed by the now Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, where DSP Uyi is the Investigating Police Officer (IPO).

He said there was a case of forgery against Abure and the Inspector General of Police directed that he should be prosecuted but that he was shocked when Uyi invited him to his office and was “asking the complainant herein when he joined LP, when he paid for the nomination form, if he participated in the party’s primary election, if he is aware of the affidavit deposed to by Mr. Ehiwe, and other questions not relevant to the directive of the IGP to charging the accused persons to court for forgery and perjury, which is the essence of the petition I wrote to the IGP.

“DSP Uyi flouted the rules of engagement with the Nigerian Police Force and Federal laws enacted by the National Assembly. DSP Uyi has no discretional power to do contrary to the directive of the Nigerian Police authority, therefore, crime of insubordination to the Nigerian Police authority has fully been established, and by conduct and by record. Since there is no evidence that he has carried out the directive of the IGP to charge the accused persons to court.”

As at the time of filing this report, the Labour Party national chairman Abure did not pick up repeated phone calls placed to his known phone number and was yet to reply the text messages sent to him.