With just four days to the governorship election in Edo state, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has dragged the All Progressives Congress (APC) Godwin Obaseki before a Federal High Court in Benin over alleged false declaration of academic qualifications.
BusinessDay reports filed by Joseph Aghimien (SAN), and Edoba Omoregie, a professor of law are seeking the disqualification of the APC governor candidate by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the suit with No. FHC/B/CO/120/16 dated 1st September, 2016, the plaintiffs claimed that the APC candidate allegedly provided false claims and information on oath to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In a writ of summon, the plaintiffs prayed the court to declare that Obaseki’s statement that he graduated from the University of Ibadan with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classical Studies in 1976, made under oath in INEC form CF001 at Part B, paragraph C dated 11July 2016, is false.
The party opined that besides misleading INEC with false information, the fact that Obaseki failed to declare if he was a member of any secret society also disqualifies him from contesting for the office of governor of Edo State.
It further opined that the defendant failure to fulfill the requirements of the constitution which in Section 182 (I) h specifies the qualifications a person must have to contest the governorship of a state necessitated the suit for his disqualification from contesting the weekend’s election.
He added that Obaseki refusal to clear the air by displaying the original of his certificates after he claimed they had been found in the United States, calling on voters in the state not to waste their votes on the Obaseki because the APC has no candidate in the election.
However, Dan Orbih, Edo state PDP chairman in his comment said the move became necessary as the party was certain beyond doubts that the academic qualifications attested to by Obaseki in an affidavit he swore to in June, 2016, were false.
