Prominent Onitsha-based Lawyer, Mr.Frank Nwankwo has insisted before the police that the affidavit purportedly deposed to by him in support of a lawsuit filed by Justice Ifeanyi Nweze of Anambra State Judiciary, is false in its entirety.
Nwankwo told the police in Abuja after his arrest that he stood by the first statement he made to the Police on November 29, 2014, in which he affirmed that he did not give any signed Will to Justice Nweze.
Nwankwo stated this in his written statement to the police dated March 15, 2021 in respect of investigation into alleged criminal collusion between Justice Nweze and one of his siblings, Chika Reginald Muoghalu.
Justice Nweze, who is engaged in a tussle with his elder brother, Micheal Nweze, a medical doctor, over their late father’s estate, had filed a lawsuit asking an Ogidi High Court in Anambra state to declare that Igwe Akum Nweze of Umuoji in Idemili North LGA of Anambra state died intestate despite reading a Will to family members after his funeral.
Police investigation revealed that the judge allegedly forged the father’s company resolutions and failing to achieve his aim due to aggressive police investigation and his subsequent arrest, moved to invalidate the Will he read to the family and take advantage of the ensuing turmoil.
Findings revealed that he produced another Will with the same date as the one he read which had earlier been found by Police forensic analysis to be a forgery.
The document was one of several unsigned variants said to have been discovered by Nwankwo while responding to the family’s request to search for a more recent Will.
But Justice Nweze’s unsigned copy unlike the ones with other family members strangely had a full complement of signatures.
According to documents he filed in the case, he informed the court that Barrister Nwankwo found the Will in his late father’s chambers and two Wills executed the same day canceled out each other.
However, in his statement to police detectives in Abuja, Nwankwo alleged that the judge altered an affidavit he gave him for deposition before the Commissioner of Oaths as he needed the affidavit from him (Nwankwo) to support his claim.
According to Nwankwo, the judge not liking what he stated in his affidavit altered it by removing entire pages and attaching his own draft.
Using this forged affidavit, he obtained a judgment on December 6, 2017 from Justice D.A Onyefulu, which allowed the disposal of the assets of the estate and winding down of the two companies founded by late Igwe Nweze.
Curiously, under the Company and Allied Matters Act, this falls within the jurisdiction of the federal high court and not a state high court. This is despite a pending suit before the Federal High Court seeking the audit and preservation of the estate.
The judgment has consequently led to an accelerated looting of the estate while the ownership structure of the two companies had also been illegally altered to the exclusion of Dr Micheal Nweze.
The lawyer’s statement to the police further created a clearer picture of the serial forgeries discovered by police investigation allegedly perpetrated by Justice Nweze.
This included forged company resolutions in the period between 2004-2009, a forged Will in 2014 as well as a forged supporting affidavit in the name of barrister Nwankwo in 2015 in his quest to declare a state of intestacy in his father’s estate.
Police investigation into the criminal collusion between Chika Muoghalu and the judge further revealed a false affidavit deposed to by Mrs B.O Mbamalu claiming to be Chika Regina Muoghalu which enabled the take-over of the GTB account of Muoghalu in order to deposit her share of the proceeds in her local account while she lives in the United States.
The Police had sought further insight into this arrangement by moving to arrest Chika Muoghalu on March 14, 2021 while she was in the country with her husband, but she resisted arrest aided by armed soldiers who also assisted her in sneaking out of the country.