Alleged certificate forgery: Obaseki floors APC at Appeal Court, awards N250,000 against APC

By Jonathan Akpoti

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday dismissed the alleged University of Ibadan degree certificate forgery suit instituted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to challenge the election of Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki

The court dismissed the suit for lacking in merit and awards N250, 000 cost in favour of governor Obaseki

Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed of a Federal High ctourt in Abuja had on January 9 this year dismissed the alleged certificate forgery suit against Obaseki.

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The judge had described the APC’s allegation as strange and like a story of an outsider telling a man in his house that he is not the father of a child.

But not satisfied with the high court decision, APC approached the Appeal Court and challenged the judgment of the lower court.

However, delivering judgment in the appeal Thursday, Justice Stephen Adah held that the lower court was right in its findings and conclusion in the APC suit.

Justice Adah upheld the testimony of the Deputy Registrar, legal, Abayomi Ajayi, who confirmed that Obaseki attended University of Ibadan in 1976 and fulfilled the requirement for admission to study Classical .

He held that the evidence of the Deputy Registrar was direct in showing that Obaseki did not forged any certificate he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to secure his clearance for participation in the governorship election.

That, based on that, Governor Obaseki fulfilled all requirements to contest for the governorship position of Edo State and that he did not violate section 182 of the Constitution

Justice Adah further said the APC failed to prove the certificate forgery allegation and that the appeal was quite unmeritorous and dismmised it with N250, 000 cost in favour of Governor Obaseki and another N50 ,000 each in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and INEC.