Certificate Forgery: Appeal Court reserves judgement on Obaseki’s eligibility suit

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division has reserved judgment in the appeal filed the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its chieftain Williams Edobor.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court had on 9th January held that the plaintiffs failed to prove the allegation of forgery beyond reasonable doubt and none of the plaintiffs witness was able to prove the certificates was forged.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed said the plaintiffs relied on the photocopied document presented by the governor without getting in touch with the university to verify the authenticity of the said certificate.

He added that no iota of truth was brought before the court by the plaintiffs who alleged forgery, saying it was a criminal matter, but the claimants were unable to prove their case.

The judge had also held that the Deputy Registrar (Legal) of the University of Ibadan had given evidence in the suit that the university duly issued the certificate to Governor Obaseki.

According to him, the governor was duly and properly admitted to study Classics, which was later renamed Classical Studies in 1976 and graduated in 1979.

Justice Mohammed concluded that the plaintiffs failed to prove their allegations of forgery against Governor Obaseki and, thereby, dismissed the case.

Dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial judge the plaintiffs have approach the court of appeal, urging the court to set aside the judgment of the trial court.

In their appellant brief of argument, the APC and its chieftain argued that at the trial court issue of forgery and falsification were raised the court only determined the issue of forgery and left that of falsification.

Counsel to the APC Akin Olujimi noted that the purported degree certificate submitted by governor Obaseki to INEC was false.

In his response Counsel to Governor Obaseki argued that based on the pleadings of appellant the false information alleged to be submitted by the respondent was on the fact that he did not graduate from the University of Ibadan in 1979 and he did resign from Afri investment limited.

He stressed that what was not contended at the trial court cannot be raised at the Appellate Court.

Governor Obaseki contested and won the governorship election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in a bid to extend his stay in office by another four years.

Although he was elected into office for the first term on the APC platform, the governor later defected from the party after he was screened out from the party’s primary which saw Mr Osagie Ize-Iyamu emerging as the APC flagbearer for the election.

This came in the middle of a lingered dispute between the governor and his predecessor and immediate past APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.

After defecting from the APC, he got the PDP’s ticket and went ahead to defeat Ize-Iyamu for the second time to claim the governorship seat in what can be described as a dramatic switch of political parties.

Governor Obaseki had defeated Ize-Iyamu as the APC candidate in the 2016 governorship election while the latter was the PDP candidate.

Four years later, he secured 307,955 of the total votes, 84,336 more votes than Ize-Iyamu who got 223, 619 votes.

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