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Charges of alleged
certificate forgery against the Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswam
lingers on as one of his opponents for the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) governorship ticket has asked a Federal High Court sitting in
Abuja, to disqualify Mr Suswam based on his educational qualification.

Terver Kakih also
listed Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the PDP, West
African Examination Council as defendants.

In a 39-paragraph
affidavit deposed to by the plaintiff, Mr Kakih claimed that Mr Suswam
“used the intimidating influence of the state to foist himself on the
PDP and picked the party’s nomination to contest for office of governor
for a second term in the forthcoming elections.” He also claimed that Mr
Suswam submitted forged credentials to the PDP screening committee.
“One of the information which an aspirant is required to swear to an
Oath on and verify is possession of requisite educational qualification
which will entitle the aspirant, under the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, to hold the office of a governor and to
substantiate the requirement of educational qualification, an Aspirant
must attach to his Party nomination form, copies of his certificates
issued by the relevant educational institutions or examination bodies
charged with issuing such certificates.” Mr Kakih explained.

Sole candidate

The plaintiff said
himself and Mr Suswam submitted their credentials to the PDP and were
both invited for screening and cleared to contest the party primary. He
said he later has reason to doubt the authenticity of the certificates
presented by Mr Suswam and asked the court for an order of interlocutory
injunction restraining the PDP and INEC, their servants, agents and or
privies from recognising or continuing to recognise the name of Mr
Suswam as the candidate of the PDP for the April governorship election
in Benue State, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive
suit.

Mr Kakih is also
seeking an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the INEC from
giving any recognition or further recognition to any other candidate(s),
apart from himself and his running mate, as gubernatorial and deputy
gubernatorial candidates of the PDP at the 2011 general election pending
the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

The matter will come up before Ibrahim Auta, who is the presiding judge on Friday.