The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, Umo Bassey Eno, has been drawn into certificate scandal, contending with allegations of perjury over falsification of West African Examination Council results and date of birth. It was alleged that documents derived from the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, showed that Eno ‘lied’ on oath before the court about his West African Examination Council results and date of birth.
A PDP governorship aspirant, Akan Okon, had filed a suit against Eno at the Federal High Court, Uyo, presided by Justice Agatha A. Okeke, alleging that the PDP governorship candidate presented forged WAEC certificate in the documents he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

It was disclosed that SaharaReporters had access to the Student Information Form (SIF) of Eno from the University of Uyo, in which he registered 24 April, 1961 as his date of birth and Ikeja, Lagos State, as his place of birth.
Biodata of Eno in the University’s database, showed the same date of birth, certificate of birth from Ikeja Local Government dated December 20, 1982, and National Youth Service Corps exception certificate, dated September 5, 2005.

Eno, in his defence, was said to have said that he was born in Enugu on April 24, 1964, and that his certificate of birth was issued in Enugu. He had sworn to an oath that he had never used any other date of birth.

It was noted that the biodata in the database of the University, showed that the birth certificate from Ikeja Local Government, and NYSC exemption certificate dated 24 April 1961 as his date of birth; but the forged WAEC certificates had 24 April 1964 as his date of birth. The PDP governorship candidate was, therefore, accused to have lied under oath.
it was also detected that the document of Eno’s academic records at the university indicated that he lied to the court about his WAEC results.
Eno was said to have contended in his defence that he combined his 1981 and 1983 WAEC certificates to secure admission into the university for the Bachelor of Science and Master degree academic programme, arguing that the certificates were not forged.
Okon later amended his accusations, adding that Eno replaced the alleged forged WAEC results he presented for governorship screening with another result for his postgraduate study.
Okon  argued that the submissions of PDP governorship candidate are false, stating that details of his academic records revealed that Eno used another WAEC result obtained in 2002 for his postgraduate programme.
Okon declared: “In further answer to paragraph 13 of the 1st and 2nd Defendants’ joint Statement of defence, the Plaintiff shall contend at the trial that the 2nd Defendant’s claim of Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science degrees from the University of Uyo are predicted on his false claim to having duly obtained WAEC certificates in 1981 and 1983 respectively.
“To buttress this fact, the Plaintiff shall lead evidence at the trial to show that the 2nd Defendant abandoned these purported WAEC results whilst completing his postgraduate Student Information Form (SIF) submitted to the Postgraduate College University of Uyo, and presented yet a completely different one which he printed from the WAEC website- waecdirect.org, showing a WAEC result obtained in Nov/Dec WASSCE (West African Senior School Certificate Examination) 2002.
“The 2nd Defendant completed the form in duplicate and kept a copy thereof for his own records.”

Eno was cited to have countered the allegations, arguing: “Neither the said Registrar nor his successor-in-title have ever disclaimed, challenged, refuted, or disputed the authenticity and genuineness of the 2nd Defendant’s Certificate of Birth.
“The 2nd Defendant has always and consistently relied on his said Certificate of Birth in proof of his date of birth and has never proffered to anyone or represented howsoever any different date other than that which is contained in the said Certificate, to wit, 24 April 1964, as his date of birth.”

It was, however, noted that Enor withdrew the confirmation of results and replaced them with a testimonial, after he had submitted a “confirmation of results” in court.
Okon also said that Eno lied about some letters from the police and WAEC, discrediting Okon’s earlier evidence.
According to Okon, “The AADN letter is neither fake nor a forgery, nor did the 1st and 2nd Defendant report any matter to the Police as alleged, nor did the Police, AKS command conduct any investigation into the fact that the president of AADN wrote such letter and received the response from the Exams and Records section/department of WAEC dated the 8th day of April 2022.
“That the purported response dated 8th August, 2022, purportedly received from WAEC by the Police, now pleaded by the 1st and 2nd Defendants, neither emanated from WAEC nor does it bear the imprimatur of WAEC, nor does it have any relevance to this suit.” he added.
The court commenced day to day hearing of the suit last Monday.