Authorities of the University of Ibadan (UI) on Tuesday said the certificate of Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, was not forged
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and one of its chieftains, Williams Edobor had dragged Obaseki to court for allegedly forging his university certificate he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in aid of his qualification for the September 19 governorship election in Edo State.
The plaintiffs want the court to disqualify the first defendant, who won the election, in the event that he was found to have forged his university certificate obtained from UI in 1979.
Other defendants in the suit are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and INEC.
The plaintiffs in proving their allegations had earlier called six witnesses including two Associate Professors who graduated from the University of Ibadan in 1978 and 1979 before closing their case on Monday.
Obaseki in opening his defence on Tuesday called two witnesses. One is the Deputy Registrar, Legal, University of Ibadan, Abayomi Ajayi, who told the court that the mere fact that some parts of the original of Obaseki’s degree certificate from the UI were missing in the photocopy he attached to his form EC9 and 001 to INEC did not amount to forgery.
He told the court that the university was not dealing with this allegation for the first as the Minister of State for Education had once brought the issue before the institution.
The authorities of University of Ibadan had in June last year before a Federal High Court in Benin, defended Obaseki against similar forgery allegations, emphasizing that Obaseki graduated from the institution and was accordingly awarded the degree certificate of Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Classical Studies in 1979.
Led in evidence on Tuesday by Ken Mozia, SAN, Obaseki’s lawyer, Ajayi who was the second witness to be called by the first defendant, explained that Obaseki’s photocopy was incomplete due to the process of photocopying.
The witness maintained that from the records of the University, Obaseki was admitted as student in 1976 through direct entry and that he graduated in the year 1979, during the tenure of Prof Tekena Tamino as Vice Chancellor and S.J. Okufu as Registrar.
“I will not regard the photopy of the original certificate as forged but incomplete photocopy because the certificate of the University of Ibadan is larger than the paper upon which the photocopy was made,” Ajayi submitted.
He then went ahead to tender photocopies of various sizes of papers and their outcome when the original was not reduced.
While he stated that he was not at the university when Obaseki was a student, he claimed to rely on Obaseki’s record at the university to give his evidence.
Other documents he tendered to prove Obaseki was a product of UI included relevant pages of the congregation for admission to degrees, award of diplomas and certificates and 31st Foundation Day Ceremony in September 1979, and Obaseki’s application among others.
Earlier, the first defence witness, Charity Aguobawekhina, Chairman of the Edo State Law Reform Commission, tendered the original of Obaseki’s certificates including the disputed BA Arts Degree in Classical Studies.
The witness who claimed to be a close associate of Obaseki, informed the court that he made the said incomplete photocopy Obaseki attached to his nomination form he submitted to INEC.
He added that part of the photocopy attached to form EC9 were cutoff because of the largeness of the original certificate.
He tendered the primary school Certificate obtained by Obaseki in 1971, School Certificate obtained in 1973 and Higher School Certificate obtained in 1971, University of Ibadan degree obtained in 1979 and another Masters Degree from Pace University obtained by Obaseki as his educational qualification.
All the certificates, which are original copies were admitted as exhibits by the trial judge.
Under cross examination, the witness insisted that the photocopy of the degree certificate, which had the signature of the University’s Chief Registrar, the date of issuance of the certificate and the name of the Vice Chancellor did not make the photocopy of the certificate a forged document.
The case continues Wednesday.
