By Dennis Agbo
Justice R.O. Dugbo-Oghoghorie of the Federal High Court in Enugu has given the Enugu state commissioner for Lands for and Urban Development, Surveyor Victor Nnam February 24 to appear before her over an alleged case of affidavit falsification for approval of community layouts.
When the matter came up, on Tuesday, Nnam was absent in the court but his counsel, PMB Onyia, tendered an excuse on a piece of paper, citing health challenges and asked to be given one week to appear.
Nnam’s letter infuriated the Justice Dugbo-Oghoghorie who described the piece of paper as worthless, queried his type of ailment, noting also that the small piece of paper did not even emanate from a government recognized hospital.
The Judge asked for service of all necessary papers to all parties and adjourned to February 24, 2021 for Nnam to appear and defend the allegations leveled against him.
Nnam had earlier in his statement before the police and contained in the prosecution documents, objected to the trial, stating that the same matter was already in two separate high courts and said the new process amounted to sub-judice.
In the matter between the federal government and Nnam, the prosecution said that Nnam was arraigned on an 8-count charge of “forging and uttering Affidavits of Facts with the intent that the documents be presented to the appropriate Ministry/Department of Enugu state government, for approval of Aruga layout, Obinagu community in Enugu state.”
Nnam was alleged to have in 2017 made and uttered the false affidavit of facts to four persons for possession of two layouts that allegedly belonged to Prime Estates International West Africa Limited, PEIWA.
Managing Director of PEIWA, Mr. Kingsley Eze told reporters, shortly after the court session that his company had engaged the services of Nnam’s firm, before he became a commissioner, for principal/ survey consultancy, but discovered in 2019 that Nnam used confidential information from PEIWA and connived with land grabbers and forged documents which was used to register two layouts in Enugu south local government area, measuring 106.182 hectares.
“This discovery led to immediate termination of his employment with PEIWA and a compliant of professional misconduct against him to the Surveyors Council of Nigeria, A criminal complaint on fraud and forgery was also made to the Nigeria Police and after thorough investigation, Surveyor Nnam was charged with eight counts of forgery,” Eze said.
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Source: www.vanguardngr.com
