Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Saturday, dismissed the certificate forgery case the All Progressives Congress, APC, and one its members, Mr. Williams Edobor, instituted against Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State. The court, in a judgement that was delivered by Justice Ahmed Mohammed, held that the Plaintiffs, failed to by way of credible evidence, discharge the burden of proof placed on them by the law.
Justice Mohammed said there was no iota of evidence before the court to establish that Obaseki forged either his O’level certificate or the degree certificate that was awarded to him in 1979 by the University of Ibadan (UI).
He held that allegation of forgery the Plaintiffs levelled against Obaseki bordered on crime and therefore required to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. “None of the witnesses called by the Plaintiffs was able to prove that the certificate as forged. “In fact, the witnesses admitted that none of them visited the University of Ibadan to confirm the authenticity of the certificate. “The Plaintiffs only relied on photocopies that were attached to the Form EC9 the 1st Defendant submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission”, the court noted.
The Court held that apparent discrepancies in the documents Obaseki submitted to INEC, “were satisfactorily explained”.
It would be recalled that the Registrar of UI testified in court that the certificate issued to Obaseki was from the university and not forged as claimed by the APC.
However, it is not known if the case will be further argued in higher courts in the coming days if appealed.
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