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A legal
practitioner, Juwon Semudara was yesterday sentenced to six-month
imprisonment by an Okitipupa Chief Magistrate Court in Ondo State for
forging a land document.

The lawyer had
allegedly claimed ownership of plots of land at Igbokoda, headquarters
of Ilaje local government with falsified documents. He was said to have
claimed that he bought the plots from the people of Ilaje community.

The community however denied selling any plot of land to the lawyer.

Delivering
judgment in a four-count charge of forgery and altering of land
documents against the legal practitioner, the presiding chief
magistrate, Siji Akinrinsola found the accused guilty on two-counts and
sentenced him to six months on each, with an option of fine. The
sentences are to run concurrently.

The accused person
called one Estron Omowole as his witness but the court held that the
prosecution proved that the documents were forged.

Clever by half

Mr Akinrinsola
said contrary to the claims of Mr Omowole who said he was the signatory
to the document, the signature he signed in court and in his statement
to the police were different from the one on the land document. He
added that Mr Omowole was “only being clever by half.”

“Being a retired
teacher, a legal veteran and litigant of note, he should know the
importance of appending signature to a document,” the judge said.

Mr Akinrinsola
said “cogent, direct and conclusive circumstantial evidence led to one
possible conclusion, and that was that the accused, who is a sole
beneficiary of the forged document and who has presented it in several
fora, including at Igbokoda and Oktipupa High court, was the forger of
the document.