Court slates March 31 for trial of two OGZFA top management staff over alleged forgery

Two top staffers of the Federal Government-owned Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority (OGFZA) are to be arraigned before a Magistrate court in Abuja on March 31 over alleged forgery and falsification of documents.

The two staff members are Mr Wasiu Sule, the Head of Legal Services and Secretary to OGFZA’s Board and Mr Alenju Ngofa, who is the head of Human Resources of the organisation.

Inspector-General of Police (IGP) is to arraign them before Magistrate Mabel Olusegun-Bello of a Wuse Zone 2 Magistrate Court in Abuja.

The court on Thursday fixed the date for trial after the case was mentioned but the Police who is the Prosecution and the two defendants were not in court.

Mr Lekan Adesina, who represented the nominal complainant, Mr Funmi Omosule, informed the court that the business of the day was the arraignment of the defendants.

He however stated that he did not know why the police and the defendants were not in court.

In a short ruling, Magistrate Olusegun Bello ordered that the arraignment of the top government officials be fixed for March 31, 2022.

The arraignment of the defendants has been meeting various hurdles since last year when the court gave the commissioner of police (FCT) Command, three weeks to produce the defendants in court.

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The court gave the order after counsel to the nominal complainant, Nkereuwem Akpan, informed the court that the accused persons had evaded service of court processes on them despite several attempts.

The magistrate also gave the police commissioner the go-ahead to investigate the defendants on allegations levelled against them.

OGFZA and Omosule had been locked in a legal battle over the legality or otherwise of his suspension, following his petition against some management staff of the agency on alleged corruption.

Omosule had alleged that the defendants willfully 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.”

He said their action was tantamount to forgery and falsification of documents contrary to Section 363 and 364 of the Penal Code, which is detrimental and injurious to his person.