Edo: Why screening panel findings on UI certificate, affidavit still haunt Obaseki

Because he still has a lot of inconsistencies to defend in his credentials, Edo Gov. Godwin Obaseki has cried out he might not get justice as the APC screening panel drills into the particulars of its aspirants for the party’s ticket in the June 22 guber primary election in Edo.

His worries came in spite of the clearance he got from the University of Ibadan over its certificate forgery allegation some party members brought against him in court.

UI, in a statement by its Registrar, Mrs Olubunmi O. Faluyi, said Obaseki gained admission into the university in 1976 to study classical studies, and he graduated in 1979 with a second-class honours, lower division.

But in the sworn affidavit he submitted to INEC through the party, Obaseki claimed he graduated from UI in 1976, the year UI claimed he gained direct admission into the varsity for the three-year study.

As the forgery allegation crumbled, the inconsistency in the UI clarification and Obaseki’s affidavit—something that might border on perjury—before the screening panel forms a new noose around the governor’s neck.

But the governor see the handiwork of his party national chairman Adams Oshiomhole.

“Like I said, as a party man, I have gone through the screening process but I do not believe that I will get justice because Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is an interested party in the Edo process,” he said yesterday.

Oshiomhole and Obaseki have been in this supremacy fight for over a year, and each has been flexing their muscle at the national and state levels, their respective circle of powers.

Committee Chairman Prof. Jonathan Ayuba, however, said that the committee is not a judicial committee, neither is it investigating the aspirants.

Many already foresee a protracted legal battle in case Obaseki has to defend himself against perjury allegation–in court.