The Federal Government on Tuesday arraigned a Lagos monarch, the Onikosi of Ikosi, Oba Alami Onikosi, and three others before a Federal High Court in Abuja on forgery charges.
The defendants were arraigned on seven-count criminal charges bordering on forgery and falsification of a Supreme Court judgment.
Others charged alongside the Onikosi are Muyideen Fabunmi, Alademehim Samuel and High Chief Michael Adesegun Onikoro.
According to the charges filed by the police prosecutor and chief superintendent of police (CSP), Barrister Joe Nwadike, the monarch and his alleged accomplices were also accused of committing perjury.
Part of the seven count charge preferred against the quartet reads:
“That you Muyideen Fabunmi ‘M’, Alademehim Samuel, Oba Alami Oloyede Onikosi and High Chief Michael Adesegun Onikoro and others at large, sometime in 2018, within the judicial division of this honourable court, did make a forged Supreme Court of Nigeria judgment document identified as Supreme Court of Nigeria judgment in suit No. 117 of 1936 with spurious inscriptions as A739972 and 7/6/75, purported to have been delivered by one Justice C W.V CARCEY, dated 1st day of February 1937, knowing it to be false, or with intent that it may in any way be used or acted upon as genuine Supreme Court Of Nigeria judgment and with such intent that any person may, in the belief that it is genuine, be induced to believe that it is a true Supreme Court of Nigeria judgment, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 1(2)(c) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Cap ‘M17’, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
The Onikosi and other defendants all pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Justice Inyang Ekwo ordered that they continue to enjoy the administrative bail granted them by the police while admonishing the monarch and his co-accused not to disappoint him.
The case was adjourned till January 17, 2023.
