Describing the appeal as unmeritorious, the appellate court dismissed it and awarded N250,000 cost in favour of governor Obaseki and another N50 ,000 each in favour of the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission , joined as a party to the suit.
“None of the witnesses called by the plaintiffs was able to prove that the certificates were forged,” the judge held. “What played out in this case is that plaintiffs only relied on photocopies that were attached to the Form EC9 the first defendant submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.”Mr Ahmed added that despite that the allegation of forgery was criminal in nature and required to be proved beyond reasonable doubt, the plaintiffs failed to bring any evidence in support of their case, not to talk of proving it beyond reasonable doubt.
Stephen Adah who delivered the court’s lead judgment held that the testimony of the Deputy Registrar , University of Ibadan, Abayomi Ajayi, confirming the authenticity of the certificate tendered by Mr Obaseki for the September 2020 election settled the matter.
Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)
Congratulations❤
Congrats GovernorObaseki
Well deserved