The controversial lawyer, Nwokorie Samuel Chinedu, who is allegedly being used to frustrate the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday made an appearance in court to represent one Philip Agbese in a case of forgery against Senator George Akume.

Chinedu is the face behind the group that rushed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to purportedly register African Peoples Congress (APC) as the authentic APC readied itself for registration.

Although it has succeeded in laying claim to the APC acronym, it pulled the trick with fake address, a development that has put INEC in a compromised position.

Chinedu made a dramatic appearance yesterday at the Federal High Court headquarters, Abuja, as counsel to Agbese, who has dragged the Senate Minority Leader, Senator George Akume, to court alleging forgery in his WAEC and NYSC certificates.

Curiously, as an opposition leader in Nigeria, Akume is among the chief promoters of the APC.

But even in court, Chinedu was controversial as he sought to hide his true identity by announcing his appearance as Nwokorie Samuel, his first and middle names.

The judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, quickly asked whether he was not the same lawyer who is known and addressed as Chinedu Samuel.

Caught in the act, he now wrote his name on the cause list as Chinedu Samuel instead of what the name he announced.

As for the case for which he was in court, Chinedu told the court that he was not familiar with the facts of the matter because, according to him, he just came to the court that morning and was informed of the case.

His words: “The counsel who was supposed to appear (Amobi Nzelu) was sick and had
travelled to the village so when he came back, he could not come to court so he called me and asked if I can hold brief for him. I just got to know of the case today and I have not even studied the case file.

“The matter is for mention and it appeared all the defendants have not been served. As a result we will be asking for a short adjournment to enable me serve the defendants.”

Meanwhile, Sebastine Hon (SAN), who made a conditional appearance for Senator Akume, told Justice Mohammed that the plaintiff (Agbese) did not serve his client with his allegations but went ahead making comments in the media.

“The plaintiff has decided not to serve the 1st defendant. He went to the press and was making comments so we decided to go to the chief registrar who gave us today’s date. The plaintiff is granting interviews up and down without serving the defendants,” Hon told the court.

“However, we have entered a conditional appearance. We undertake to accept service on behalf of the 1st defendant because it seems the plaintiff wants to abandon the matter,” he further said.

When the court asked Chinedu if he had a copy to serve the counsel who volunteered to accept service, he said he did not have an extra copy. He also denied prosecuting his case in the media.

Surprisingly, the court registrar revealed during proceedings that when the matter was listed for yesterday, she painstakingly served the plaintiff hearing notice, which was not the practice.

Consequently, the judge adjourned the matter to May 7, 2013 for mention, ordering that hearing notices should be served on all the defendants.

The plaintiff has dragged the former governor of Benue state to court along with West African Examination Council (WAEC), Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC), Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) alleging forgery in Akume’s WAEC and NYSC’s certificates.

•Photo: Controversial lawyer Nwokorie Samuel Chinedu.

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