* My academic record is clean, Eno insists
The governorship candidate of Young Progressives Party (YPP) in Akwa Ibom State, Albert Bassey, has asked the State’s Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to nullify the victory of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) candidate and Governor-elect, Pastor Umo Eno, alleging that he is a fraudster, who was expelled from the University of Uyo in 2005 for certificate forgery.
But in his own 63-paragraph rebuttal statement, Eno denied forging his WAEC result, adding that he also possesses a Bachelor of Science and Master’s of Science degrees in Political Science and Public Administration obtained from the University of Uyo.
Bassey, who claimed that Eno was one of the students expelled from the university in 2005 for obtaining admission with a fake West African Examination Council (WAEC)/Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) certificate, wants the tribunal to nullify his election, in the petition marked: AKW/GOV/01/2023.
The YPP candidate, who insisted that Eno was not at the time of the election qualified to contest because he presented a forged WAEC June 1981 certificate to INEC during his nomination by the PDP, alleged that the WAEC certificate presented by him to the university while he was seeking admission, bore the examination number 15725119 — the same as his 1983 WAEC certificate he (Eno) claims to also possess.
“It was also revealed that while Eno Umo Bassey claimed to have used his WAEC/SSCE certificate of December 1998 to gain admission into the university, the admission for 1998/1999 academic session was in October 1998. Eno Umo Bassey was listed as No 19 in the University of Uyo’s senate list of expelled students dated 10th February 2005.”
A similar alleged certificate forgery case was filed against Eno by Akan Okon, a former governorship aspirant of the PDP, but was struck out by a Federal High Court in Uyo for want of merit, with N15million cost awarded against him.
Justice Agatha Okeke, who presided over the matter, had ruled that Okon’s petition was based on assumption adding that he was unable to prove to the court that Eno’s certificates were forged, a position that was upheld by a three-man panel of justices of the Court of Appeal, headed Elfreda William-Dawodu, which however reduced the cost from N15million to N5million.