Supreme Court dismisses certificate forgery case against Obaseki

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Uba Group

LINUS CHIBUIKE

THE Supreme Court has dismissed a certificate forgery case filed against Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State by the All Progressives Congress and one of its members, Williams Edobor.

In a unanimous decision, a five-man penal of justices of the Supreme Court held, on Friday, that the Appellants failed to prove their case against the Edo Governor.

The apex court insisted that it could not set aside the concurrent judgements of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal in Abuja because there was no reason to.

The Appellants had alleged that Obaseki tendered false credentials to the Independent National Electoral Commission in the build up to the September 19, 2020 governorship election in Edo State.

The High Court and the Appeal Court had however dismissed the allegation.

In its lead judgement, delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court held that the appellants woefully failed to substantiate their forgery allegation against the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Obaseki, and, therefore, awarded a cost of N1million in his favour.

Recall that the Court of Appeal had in a judgement delivered on March 18, held that the case the APC and Edobor brought to vacate the January 9 verdict of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which authenticated Obaseki’s University of Ibadan degree certificate, lacked merit.

The appellate court panel, led by Justice Stephen Adah, upheld the testimony of the Deputy Registrar, Legal, University of Ibadan, Abayomi Ajayi, who had earlier confirmed before the trial court, that Obaseki attended the University and fulfilled all the requirements for admission into the Department of Classical Studies.