Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, will begin his defense in the alleged forgery of his University of Ibadan (UI) degree certificate, today (Tuesday).
Obaseki was dragged to a Federal High Court in Abuja by The All Progressives Congress (APC) and one of its members, Williams Edobor, for allegedly forging the UI certificate he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and INEC are the other defendants in the law suit.
Immediately after the APC closed its case on Monday, after calling six witnesses, the presiding Justice Ahmed Mohammed adjourned hearing till Tuesday whence Obaseki will open his defense.
While sitting on Thursday (last week), the court had adjourned till Monday (this week) to allow for the cross examination of the fourth plaintiffs’ witness, Raphael Onwuzuligbo, a retired police officer and a forensic document examiner.
During the court hearings on Monday, Onwuzuligbo informed the court of how a certain Faithful Steward engaged him to examine some documents pertaining to Obaseki’s certificate.
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Onwuzuligbo, during cross examination, admitted that he did not know the origin of the documents sent to him for examination.
He, however, certified that the documents were the true copy of Obaseki’s certificates.
His findings, he explained, indicated that there was a marked difference between Obaseki’s certificate and that of one of the witnesses, Dr Emmanuel Balogun.
After the cross examination of the 6th witness, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Chief Akin Olujimi, SAN, informed the court that his clients were done with their case and would like to close it.
The judge ordered the closure of the plaintiffs’ case accordingly.
He then ordered the first defendant to open his case before adjourning the matter to Tuesday.
The Incumbent PDP Governor, Godwin Obaseki, won re-election for a second term after defeating APC’s Osagie Ize-Iyamu in the Edo State gubernatorial election held on September 19, 2020.