Alleged forgery: Anambra judge loses bid to quash trial recommendation

A bid by an Anambra State judge, Justice Ifeanyi Nweze, to quash a police legal opinion recommending him for criminal prosecution has been thrown out by Justice N. Odili of the Anambra State High Court.

The judge ruled that the suit lacked merit, noting that Justice Nweze’s prayers that the court should arrest the legal opinion would amount to interfering with police duty of investigation.

• PHOTOS: From Abuja to Kano, workers hit the streets over minimum wage
• Many passengers stranded as robbers kill driver on Benin-Ore expressway 

The legal opinion with reference CB: 3960/X/LEG/VOL.1186 dated April 11, 2016, signed by ACP Ochogwu Ogbe on behalf of the Commissioner of Police, Legal Section, Force CID, Alagbon, Lagos, had found Justice Nweze and his sister, Mrs Benedette Mbamalu, culpable for forgery of the will of his late father, Igwe Akum Nwez, who died in January, 2004.

The legal opinion was based on the police investigation which revealed that Justice Nweze allegedly used pre-signed letterheads to remove his elder brother, Dr Michael Nweze, as a director and signatory to their father’s companies, Nweze & Co. Ltd., and Nweze & Sons Estates Ltd., to disinherit him, and appointed both his own wife and sister, Benedette Mbamalu in Michael’s place.

The probe also discovered that millions of naira and foreign currencies had been fraudulently withdrawn through cash withdrawals, foreign remittances, sale of estate property as well as misappropriation of sale proceeds and rental income.

The police legal opinion had established that the suspects forged the company’s resolutions using the pre-signed company letterheads prepared for their late father to help him in running the companies due to the distance from Onitsha to the United States where Dr Michael Nweze was living at that time.

The opinion, which was addressed to the Commissioner of Police, Special Fraud Unit, Ikoyi Lagos, read in part: “In the course of an investigation, a Will, dated August 25, 1993, is alleged to have been forged by pages B1 and B2.

“This Will was signed by the testator, His Royal Highness, Igwe Akum Nweze and witnessed by one Chief Christopher Nnadi and Patrick Okenwa.

“The signature of Chief Nnadi (deceased) was suspected to have been forged while those of the witness and testator were believed to be genuine.

“The forensic document examiner upon examination and comparison of the disputed signature found ‘inherent features of disparity’ and therefore, concluded that the signature on the will is a forgery.

“I have painstakingly gone through the case file and it is my considered opinion that the offences of conspiracy to commit felony to wit forgery and forgery and obstructing the cause of justice has been established against the suspects (Justice Nweze and Benedette).”

Justice Nweze and Benedette Mbamalu, however, sought to nullify the legal opinion which affirmed that the offences of conspiracy to commit felony, forgery and obstructing justice had been established against them by police investigation sequel to Dr Michael Nweze’s petition.

They also prayed for an injunction restraining the police from acting on the content of the legal opinion and an order directing the Inspector-General of Police and the CP, Anambra State, the second and third respondents respectively, to hand over the police case file to the Attorney-General of the Federation and AG, Anambra State.

But Judge Odili in his ruling dated January 21, 2021, dismissed the suit, saying it was lacking in merit.

“It is my view that acceding to the applicant’s request to quash the legal opinion will amount to the court interfering with the police duty of investigation,” he held.

Sequel to his failed bid, Justice Nweze has filed a notice of appeal and fundamental rights action at an Onitsha high court to stop his criminal prosecution by the police.