Certificate Forgery: Obaseki to open defence against Allegation Tuesday
Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki State will on Tuesday, open his defense in the alleged forgery of his University of Ibadan degree certificate at a Federal High Court in Abuja.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and one of its members, Williams Edobor, had taken Obaseki to court for allegedly forging the UI certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Other defendants in the suit were the People’s Democratic Party and INEC.
On Monday, shortly after the APC closed its case after calling six witnesses, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, adjourned hearing till Tuesday for Obaseki to open his defense
Recalled that the court had, at its sitting on Thursday, adjourned till Monday for the cross examination of the fourth plaintiffs’ witness, Raphael Onwuzuligbo, a retired police officer and a forensic document examiner.
During Monday’s hearing, Onwuzuligbo told the court how he was engaged by one Faithful Steward to examine some documents relating to the certificate of Obaseki.
During cross examination, he admitted not knowing the origin of the documents sent to him for examination but stated that the documents were Certified True Copy of Obaseki’s certificates.
According to him, his findings showed that there was a difference in the certificate of one of the witnesses, Dr Emmanuel Balogun, and that of Obaseki.
At the end of cross examination of the 6th witness, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, informed the court that his clients are through with their case and would want to close it.
The judge accordingly ordered closure of the plaintiffs’ case and ordered the first defendant to open his case and adjourned the matter to Tuesday.