A federal high court in Abuja has dismissed a certificate forgery suit against Godwin Obaseki, Governor of Edo State.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed dismissed the suit in a judgement delivered on Saturday.
The All Progressives Party (APC) and a chieftain of the party, Williams Edobor, had filed the suit alleging that Governor Obaseki presented a forged certificate to seek re-election in the Edo State governorship election held on September 19, 2020.
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They alleged that the certificate which the governor claimed to be from the University of Ibadan and which was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enable him to contest the governorship election, did not carry a date of issuance and signature of the registrar.
But the governor had denied the allegation of forgery.
He insisted that the error on photocopy of his certificate which he submitted to INEC was made by a photocopying machine.
Also, Abayomi Ajayi, an official of the legal unit of the University of Ibadan who was summoned to testify as a defence witness told the court that the institution issued a Bachelor of Arts certificate to Obaseki in 1979.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed, in the judgment, held that the plaintiffs failed to prove their claim that Obaseki forged the academic certificates that he submitted to INEC before the last governorship election in the state.
The judge found as lazy, the attitude of the plaintiffs, who made no effort to cross-check the authenticity of the academic certificate issued by the University of Ibadan (UI) and the West African Examination Council (WAEC), before asserting they were forged forged by obaseki.
© ControlTV 2021.
