Court dismisses APC’s certificate forgery suit against Obaseki

An Abuja Federal High Court on Saturday dismissed the certificate forgery suit filed against the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki.

The suit, filed by the All Progressive Congress (APC) and a chieftain of the party, Williams Edobor, was dismissed by Justice Ahmed Mohammed.

The judge held that the plaintiffs relied on the photocopied document presented by Obaseki without getting in touch with the university to verify the authenticity of the certificate and the claimants were unable to prove their case.

The judge added that the Deputy Registrar (Legal) of the University of Ibadan had given evidence in the suit that the university duly issued the certificate to 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 thereby dismissed the case.

The APC and Edobor had filed the suit alleging that Obaseki presented a forged certificate to seek re-election in the Edo State governorship election held on September 19, 2020.

They alleged that the forged document was issued by the University of Ibadan, while the governor presented same to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which conducted the poll.

Trouble began for Obaseki during the buildup to his re-election bid under APC – he was APC’s candidate for the first term election.

Obaseki was denied renomination by the APC after a fall out with his successor, Adams Oshiomhole, who was then the national chairman of the party.

The governor later defected to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while Osagie Ize-Iyamu emerged as the APC flagbearer for the election.

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

In 2020 again, Obaseki won Ize-Iyamu. He secured 307,955 of the total votes, 84,336 more votes than Ize-Iyamu who got 223, 619 votes.