Obaseki vs APC: Appeal Court Rules On Edo Governor Certificate Forgery

The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday dismissed the alleged University of Ibadan degree certificate forgery filed against Governor Godwin Obaseki.

Naija News reports that the appellate court ruled that the suit filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) lacked merit as it awarded N250,000 cost in favour of Obaseki

Recall that Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja had on January 9, 2021, dismissed the case of university certificate forgery against the governor.

Justice Ramat, in his ruling, had said that the APC’s allegation was strange and like a story of an outsider telling a man in his house that he is not the father of a child.

Unsatisfied with the High Court ruling, the APC approached the Appeal Court to set aside the judgement of the lower court.

Delivering his ruling, Justice Stephen Adah, of the Appeal Court, held that the FHC Abuja was right in its findings and conclusion in the APC suit.

He upheld the testimony of the Deputy Registrar, Mr. Abayomi Ajayi, who confirmed that Obaseki was a student of the University of Ibadan in 1976 and fulfilled the requirement for admission to study Classical.

Adah held that the evidence of the Deputy Registrar was direct in showing that Obaseki did not forge any certificate he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to secure his clearance for participation in the governorship election.

He said the APC failed to prove the certificate forgery allegation and that the appeal is quite unmeritorious and dismissed it with N250, 000 cost in favour of Obaseki and another N50 ,000 each in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and INEC