Alleged Forgery: Court Admits Obaseki’s Certificates As Evidence

A Federal High Court in Abuja has admitted the original certificates of Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, as evidence.

This comes as Justice Ahmed Mohammed presides over the case of alleged certificate forgery instituted against the governor by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a chieftain of the party, Mr Williams Edobor.

The presiding judge admitted the documents as exhibits on Tuesday while the defendants called their first witness, Charity Aguobawekhina, to attest to their originality.

Documents admitted by the court include Governor Obaseki’s First School Leaving Certificate obtained in 1971, his Ordinary Level Certificate obtained in 1973, and his Higher School Certificate obtained in 1976.

Others are the governor’s Bachelor of Arts Degree Certificate issued by the University of Ibadan in 1979 and a Master’s Degree Certificate issued to him by the Pace University in New York, the United States in 1994.

Counsel to the plaintiffs, Akin Olujimi, had raised an objection to the primary school certificate and original copy of the governor’s certificate from the University of Ibadan.

He said the documents were not frontloaded and all arguments in respect to the objections raised would be taken to the final written address.

Governor Obaseki’s certificates were admitted as evidence a day after the APC closed its case against him.

At the resumed hearing of the suit on Monday, Olujimi concluded the APC’s case with the cross-examination of an expert witness, Raphael Onwuzuligbo, who is a retired Assistant Superintendent of Police and a forensic document examiner.

When cross-examined by the counsels to Obaseki, Onwuzuligbo informed the court that the University of Ibadan’s logo on the governor’s certificate appeared to have been compromised.

He added that the signature of the Vice-Chancellor of the university was missing from the certificate not because the document was poorly scanned but that it was truly missing.

On his part, Olujimi stated that the testimony of the witness further proved their case against Governor Obaseki.