EDO: Obaseki qualified to contest Edo 2020 poll — Federal High Court rules

* No iota of evidence before the court to establish that Obaseki forged his certificates — Justice Mohammed

GODWIN Obaseki has been declared duly qualified to contest the September 2020 Gubernatorial election.

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja gave the ruling today in a suit that was filed by the Governor’s former political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and a member, Williams Edobor.

The Edo State governor had been accused of forging his Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies certificate from the University of Ibadan, which he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) regarding his governorship nomination.

The plaintiffs thus sought his disqualification from contesting the elections.

In a judgement that was delivered by Justice Ahmed Mohammed, the Presiding Judge 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.

He held that allegation of forgery which 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 was forged.

“In fact, the witnesses admitted that none of them visited the University of Ibadan to confirm the authenticity of the certificate.”

Noted the court, “The Plaintiffs only relied on photocopies that were attached to the Form EC9 the 1st Defendant submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.”

It held that apparent discrepancies in the documents Obaseki submitted to INEC, “were satisfactorily explained”.

Obaseki, following disagreement with the APC, had decamped to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and won the September governorship election. He was subsequently inaugurated as executive governor.