Drama Looms As Kaduna Senator Denies Using Forged Certificate, Threatens Legal Action

Senator Lawal Adamu Usman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial Zone, has denied using any fraudulent academic certificate as part of documents presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the 2023 election, Vanguard reports.

The All Progressives Congress( APC) was challenging the election victory of the PDP Senator, on the grounds that he did not attend some schools he claimed in his INEC nomination form.

It was reported that one of  the  witnesses, a former student of the Department Public Administration of Ameer Shehu ldris College of Advanced Studies, Zaria, had claimed that the serving senator used her result to gain admission into a university.

In his reaction , Senator Lawal Adamu Usman in a two-page letter  through his solicitors Messrs E. N. Ogbu & Associates stated that the story  published on  12th July, 2023 with  caption: “Kaduna Senator used  my result for varsity admission, witness tells tribunals” is libelous and defamatory, and therefore threatened legal action.

The Senator, who demanded for immediate retraction of the  story  filed for damages in the sum of N1,000,000,000 (One Billion Naira Only) against the Newspapers for publishing , targeted at tarnishing his image and reputation.

According to the letter, the contents of the said newspaper publication portrayed Senator  Lawal Adamu Usman as one, who made illegal and fraudulent use of a certificate to gain admission into a university .

The letter further reads: “However, the procedure to obtain these  facts were thrown to the wind with respect to the reportage in itself as same, according to our Client were a calculated effort to wickedly dent an image and status earned over the years by dint of hard work.”

“Our Client has suffered emotional and psychological trauma over the “fake news” printed to dent his hard earned reputation in the eyes of the public over an information that is not only false but inexistent.”

“The Nigerian Government has times without numbers strictly warned the generality of the public against spreading what is now known to be “fake news.”

The lawmaker however, said if after 7 days of  receipt of the letter the media house  fail, omit, refuse, and/or neglect to formally retract the said libelous piece of information, which our Client considers defamatory of his person and apologize, he would take legal action.