There has been an allegation of fraud leveled against the Judiciary arm of government in Kaduna state over reported alteration of documents.
It was gathered that the office of the Registrar was alleged to have backdated a document it earlier claimed did not exist in favour of the state government.
Investigation revealed that a company Staunton & Lycett in recent months had been involved in running legal battle with the state government over contract execution and payment which resulted in an arbitration and eventual court cases.
It must be stated that the government has been accused of failing to fulfill its obligation of making payment to the company years after delivering jobs for the government.
This newspaper however observed that the company through its lawyer wrote to the Kaduna state Registrar being the custodian of all cases filed in the court asking for an update on pending suit against it in the records of the court.
A source who was involved in the dealings said, ” the investigation shows further that an arbitration award was gotten against Kaduna State Government on the 21st of March 2024, and Kaduna State Government had until 21st of June 2024 to file a suit to set it aside after which its right to set aside the award becomes invalid.
” The company believing that Kaduna State Government will be fraudulent and back date its filing after the Set Aside date is exceeded enquired by a letter to the Chief Registrar of Kaduna State High Court, and the Federal High Court, Kaduna Division if there was any litigation against it in both courts.”
In a letter received in the Chief Registrar’s office on 13th June 2024 and written by Angela Abolarinwa, esq for Chris Nnoli and Associates, the company requested a letter of confirmation of any pending case against the organization.
The letter partly reads, ” That “Our Client” requires a letter of confirmation of any pending litigation from March 2024 till date before the Kaduna State High Court to confirm has no pending suit initiated against the company.”
In a one-paragraph response dated 24th June, 2024 and signed by P.A to Chief Registrar , Abdulrashid Adamu on behalf of the Chief Registrar, said no pending case against the company.
” I write to inform you that there is no pending case against Staunton and Lycett Nig. Ltd. (RC No. 481267) in our register book, High Court Kaduna Between March 2024 to 24th June 2024″ the letter concludes.
Kaduna State Government was served an FCT High Court order garnishing several accounts of Kaduna State Government on the 24th of June 2004 based on the arbitration award.
However, in what could be described as a clear case of fraud, an originating summons with no KDH/KAD/21M/2024 dated 20th June 2024 was attached as an exhibit to a notice of preliminary objection filed by lawyers in the state ministry of Justice at the FCT High Court in reply to the garnishee order against the Kaduna State Government.
Curiously, the date on the originating summon (June 20th,2024) falls within the time the Registrar confirmed there were no cases or suits against the company.
This is said to be a case of alteration of the document to reflect an earlier date to enable the Kaduna State Government filed suit to be within the arbitration award set aside period.
” The record as indicated by the office of the Chief Registrar shows that no case was filed against Staunton and Lycett Nig. Ltd as of 24th June 2024 and therefore the Kaduna State Government lost its right to set aside the award. ”
A petition has been written to the Inspector General of Police against some workers in the office of the Registrar who were said to be involved in the alleged falsification of the document.
As of press time, efforts to get the reaction of the Chief Registrar regarding his involvement or otherwise to the allegations were not successful.
But investigation from the court revealed that it was not a case of fraud but an error due to the fact that the company’s lawyer did not provide the suit in his letter to the Registrar.
The court, according to findings are preparing to write a letter back to the lawyer.
The case has been assigned to one of the Judges appointed from the Kaduna State Ministry of Justice for a hearing.
