[UPDATED] Alleged Certificate Forgery: Court Dismisses Suit Against Gov. Obaseki

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed the alleged certificate forgery suit filed against the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed while delivering judgment in the alleged certificate forgery suit filed by the APC against the governor said that the APC failed to prove the forgery allegation beyond reasonable doubt.

He held that despite that the allegation of forgery was criminal in nature and required to be proved beyond reasonable doubt, the plaintiffs failed to bring any evidence not to talk of proving the allegation beyond reasonable doubt.

“The evidence of the plaintiffs is at variance with their allegations,” the judge said.

He said contrary to the plaintiffs’ claim, the representative of University of Ibadan confirmed Mr Obaseki was duly admitted to UI and that the copy of the certificate he presented was genuine.

He said the concession of the plaintiffs’ witnesses that they did not bother to go to the University of Ibadan or any of the institution that they claimed Mr Obaseki forged their certificates, was enough to let the case to rest.

He ruled, “Having thoroughly analysed the evidence of this case, it is the conclusion of this court that plaintiff did not forge his O’Level Certificate, his HSC certificate, and particularly his University of Ibadan degree certificate.

“Accordingly the plaintiffs’ case is dismissed with not order as to cost.”

The APC and 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.

According to the plaintiffs, the said document was purportedly issued by the University of Ibadan, while the governor presented same to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which conducted the poll.

Before Justice Mohammed delivered the judgement in the suit, counsels to both parties in the matter had closed their cases after they presented witnesses and evidence to the court.

During proceedings on Thursday, lawyer to the Plaintiffs, Akin Olujimi, adopted his final written address.

He urged the court to affirm their position that the governor presented a forged certificate to the electoral umpire and was unfit to occupy the office.

This was, however, rejected by Governor Obaseki’s counsel, Ken Mozia, who asked the court to dismiss the suit over what he described as the plaintiff’s failure to prove their case.

A Dramatic Switch, Yet Same Result
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.