The ongoing legal battle over certificate forgery involving Akan Okon; the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno and the electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the Federal High Court, Uyo, has taken an interesting turn, documents exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters have revealed.
Okon, a contestant in the May 25 governorship primary of the PDP in Akwa Ibom is dragging Eno, the winner of the said election to court on the allegations that he is using a forged West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination result in his bid to become the governor of the state.
According to an original copy of a letter exclusively obtained by our SaharaReporters, the examination body, West African Examinations Council (WAEC) confirmed that Umo Eno's certificate does not exist in its records.
In the letter dated 8th April 2022 and signed by T. A. Ademola, WAEC Exams and Records, while responding to a request for confirmation of Eno's 1983 results, the examination body stated that it could not certify the certificate because it did not issue it.
“This is to notify you that the certificate No. PO 275878 A for candidate No. 15725119 of December 1983 submitted for certification by you does not exist in our records hence we cannot certify what we did not issue,” the letter read.
Responding to Okon's earlier statement of claim to the Federal High Court, Eno in his statement of defence denied all the allegations.
His written defence was accompanied by a copy of ‘Confirmation of Result’.
The documents filed by Pastor Eno are ‘Confirmation of Result’ for his 1981 and 1983 certificates which were addressed to the Attorney General/Commissioner for Justice of Akwa Ibom State.
However, Okon, through his lawyers, has opened more loopholes in Eno's statement of defence by highlighting more discrepancies in the confirmation of the results.
According to Okon's reply, while the 1983 confirmation of results has Eno Umo Bassey as the candidate’s name, the 1981 version has Bassey Umo Eno as the candidate’s name, adding that WAEC does not have Umo Eno as the holder of May/June 1981 GCE O/L but the name of Bassey Umo Eno.
“Having supplied the name of the candidate that wrote the examination in 1981, the examining body indicated in the last paragraph of her letter thus: ‘You will have to satisfy yourself that he/she and Bassey Umo Eno of our record, are one and the same person,’” Okon noted.
Okon further noted that there is a disparity in the name of the school. He stated that while the certificate carries Victory High School, Ikeja as the examination centre, the Confirmation of Result bears Victory High School ‘1’, Ikeja.
Another disparity highlighted was in the subjects. In the 1981 Certificate, “Religious Knowledge” is recorded as one of the four subjects, while “Bible Knowledge” is one of the six subjects in the Confirmation of Result.
In the 1981 certificate, the candidate number 15520232 has no punctuation mark inserted in between the digits, and the 1981 confirmation of result has 15520/232 as the candidate number with a slash (/).
Just like in the case of the 1981 certificate and confirmation of results, the main certificate of the 1983 WAEC has 15725119 (without punctuation sign) as candidate number while his confirmation of result for the same year has candidate number (15725/119) with a slash.
“The implication flowing from the discrepancies in the certificates presented by the 2nd Defendant to the 1st Defendant for his screening shows him as having names namely; Bassey Umo Eno - 1981 WAEC result; Eno Umo Bassey - 1983 WAEC result; Umo Bassey Eno - name used on his application to the 1st Defendant,” Okon added.
Okon's reply further stated, “As the policy of West African Examination Council, internal candidates writing the examination for the first time or even thereafter have to enter a minimum of eight (8) subjects, including English Language and Mathematics. The Confirmation of Result issued by the Examining Body show that Bassey Umo Eno entered for six (6) subjects, excluding English Language, a compulsory subject.
“The certificate relied upon by 2nd Defendant, apart from not bearing his name has other striking distinctions from the letter of confirmation of result issued by the examining body and so the certificate presented at the screening of the 1st Defendant was not and can never have been his certificate”.
It can be recalled that in his statement of claim, Okon had alleged that Eno's name does not exist in INEC's database as a registered voter because his voter card was forged.
In addition, a photocopy of Eno's voter card submitted to the PDP screening committee bears 01-01-1964 as his date of birth but his curriculum vitae and credentials bear 24th April, 1964.
Okon, in his reply to Eno's defence, further emphasised that he does not have an authentic voter card.
“In answer to paragraph 11 of the statement of defence of the 2nd Defendant, the Plaintiff shall at the trial of this case rely on the certified true copy of the voter's register of Unit 06 Ward 02, Nsit Ubium Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State in addition to the relevant sections of his pleadings in paragraph 7 of the statement of claim to show that the 2nd Defendant does not have any authentic voter's card.
“The Plaintiff, therefore, pleads that having forged his certificates and the school he purportedly attended, the 2nd Defendant ought to have been disqualified from participating in the primaries and that having taken part in the said primaries, his votes ought to be declared void votes and the Plaintiff having scored the highest valid votes ought to declared and presented as the candidate of the 1st Defendant to fly the flag of 1st Defendant in the 2023 Governorship election.”
