BY INNOCENT ANABA

A prosecution witness in the on-going trial of Mr. Yusuf Adeleke, a Lagos- based lawyer, before an Ikeja Magistrate Court, Lagos, Mr Monsuru Taiwo, yesterday, insisted that his signature was forged in respect of a suit before a Federal High Court, in Lagos in 2007.

The witness, a land Surveyor, in his evidence at the resumed hearing in the case of perjury and forgery against the lawyer, Adeleke, told the court, under cross examination, that he came to know about the forgery of his signature, when confronted with some documents at  Force Headquarters, Abuja. Trial magistrate is Taiwo Akanni.

The prosecution had alleged that the accused with others at large, sometime in March 2011, at the Lagos State High Court conspired to commit perjury and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 518 (6) of the criminal Code Cap C. 17 Vol. II Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2008.

The prosecution had also alleged that the accused and others still at large, forged the signature of Monsuru Taiwo by presenting himself to the Clerk of the court as Monsuru Taiwo.

The witness had in her earlier testimony, said there was never a time he met a Lagos based estate agent, Chief Tesilimi Almaroof.

“I had never met Almaroof in my life but I used to hear about his name as a reputable and well known estate agent,” he told the court. Further hearing in the matter was adjourned till June 25, 2012.