Edo: Supreme Court Delivers Final Ruling On Certificate Forgery Case Against Obaseki

The Supreme Court in a unanimous judgement on Friday dismissed the certificate forgery case against Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.

The apex court in its lead judgement that was delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim held that the prosecutors failed to prove their case against the Edo State Governor.

Naija News reports that the case was instituted by the All Progressives Congress (APC), and one of its members, Mr. Williams Edobor.

They had accused Governor Obaseki of presenting false credentials to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest the September 19, 2020 governorship election which held in Edo State.

However, the five-man penal of justices of the apex court threw out the case for lack of merit.

The court also awarded a cost of N1million in favour of governor Obaseki.

Earlier in a related development, the court of Appeal sitting in Benin has upheld the victory of Governor Godwin Obaseki in the 2020 Edo state governorship election.

Naija News reports that on March 29, the election petitions tribunal dismissed all the petitions seeking nullification of Obaseki’s election.

Dissatisfied, the Action Democratic Party (ADP) and its governorship candidate, Iboi Lucky went further to the court of appeal to challenge the tribunal’s verdict.

Delivering judgment in the appeal marked CA/B/EPT/GOV/01 & 1A/2021 Action Democratic Party & Anor v. INEC & 2Ors, the appellate court on Wednesday held that Obaseki did not forge the certificates with which he contested the election.

The court, therefore, dismissed the appeal filed by the ADP and its candidate.

In another case, the Action Alliance (AA) and the Action Peoples Party (APP) had approached the appellate court claiming that they were unlawfully excluded from the poll.

The two parties in their petitions asked the court to nullify Obaseki’s election.

Delivering judgement in the case, marked /B/EPT/GOV/02/2021 Action Peoples Party (APP) Vs Godwin N. Obaseki & 2Ors, the court in a unanimous decision, upheld the judgment of the tribunal and dismissed the appeal with cost assessed at N600,000 each on two different counts.

The governor won all the eight issues for determination in the appeal.