The Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has heard the argument that accused the governor-elect of certificate forgery.
The Governor-elect, Umo Uno, was allegedly expelled from his university for forging his WAEC certificate.
YPP’s gubernatorial candidate, Albert Bassey, filed this allegation before the Tribunal.
The governor-elect in Akwa Ibom state, Umo Eno, has been alleged of being expelled as an undergraduate at the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) in 2005 for allegedly forging his O’Level certificate.
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As reported by TheCable, these claims were brought before the governorship election petition tribunal in Uyo by the gubernatorial candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Albert Bassey.
Unmo Eno was alleged to have been expelled from the University of Uyo in 2005 for forging his WAEC certificate to obtain admission.
The petition by Bassey marked AKW/GOV/01/2023 disclosed that the governor-elect was expelled from the institution after it was discovered that he had used a fake West African Examination Council (WAEC)/Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) certificate to obtain admission.
Bassey’s legal team urged the tribunal to nullify Uno’s victor and withdraw his certificate of return as the state governor-elect as proclaimed INEC.
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The petition reads: “It was also revealed that while Eno Umo Bassey claimed to have used his WAEC/SSCE certificate of December 1998 to gain admission into the university, the admission for 1998/1999 academic session was in October 1998,” the petition reads.
“Eno Umo Bassey was listed as No 19 in the University of Uyo’s senate list of expelled students dated 10th February 2005.” Furthermore, Bassey’s counsel argued that the evidence shows that Uno was not qualified to contest for the governorship seat.
Uno’s lawyer reacts to Bassey’s allegations Reacting to these allegations, the legal counsel to Uno filed a counter-application debunking the content of Bassey’s allegations.
In a 63-paragraph application, Uno said he had his first and second degree in sciences and later earned another degree in political science and public administration from the University of Uyo.
Meanwhile, a former governorship aspirant of the PDP in the state, Akan Okon, was reported to have filed a similar suit against Uno at a high court in Uyo.
But it was later gathered that the court struck out the case with the sum of N15 million also awarded against the Plaintiff.
The Presiding Judge ruled that Okon’s allegations were based on an assumption which lacked proof. Again at the appellate court earlier in January, Okon’s case was also struck out, with the court upholding the initial judgment of the high court. However, the appellate court reduced the N15 million awarded to Eno to N5 million.