Following the anti-fraud mechanism put in place by the Chief Judge of Kogi State, Hon. Justice Josiah Joe Majebi, to sanitise the state judiciary, especially the High Court of Justice, the state judiciary has uncovered the syndicate behind issuance of fake enrolment orders.

This move was in line with the vision of the Council of Judges of the state, and has begun to yield unprecedented results as hitherto underground dealings are beginning to be uncovered in the high court system.

Justice Majebi is not taking lightly the discovery that has just been made of a syndicate behind the issuance of court Enrolment Orders to the public, and has directed that the culprits be investigated by the police.

Preliminary investigations has revealed that that Court Enrolment Orders were being issued without passing through the required process of formal application to the court for issuance of same by recipients.

According to the Chief Registrar of the High Court, Jubril Oladimeji Ibrahim, the crime, which may have been going on for a long time, was detected through the meticulous effort of the Chief Judge’s eagle-eyed detective mechanism that has been deployed within the system and the public in order to detect untoward activities relating to justice administration in the state.

He said the mechanisms have been deployed without the knowledge of the staff of the institution and the public.

Investigations revealed that the syndicate, which has been operating mainly in Lokoja, the state capital, has its tentacle spread across the state and specialises in forging and issuing documents that are supposedly issued by the court.

He said the breakthrough was as a result of the immediate response and the necessary actions taken to bring culprits to book when information on the dastardly act was first broken to the Chief Judge.

This, according to the CR, led to the invitation of a former President of the Upper Area Court I, Lokoja, Tenimu Muhammed, who is currently an assistant director in his office. He is presently facing a disciplinary trial before the Judicial Service Commission of the state. He purportedly granted and signed Enrolled Order made without any proceeding or application.

Two other staff of the High Court, Abdullahi Adams and Umar Muhammed, have been arrested and are being investigated by the police.

Following this development, the Chief Judge has warned all staff of the judiciary to desist from acts capable of tarnishing their personal image and that of the judiciary, reiterating that the Council of Judges mission of restoring the institution’s integrity and sanctity is sacrosanct and nonnegotiable. (THISDAY)

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