The candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) Iboi Lucky Emmanuel and his party has asked the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin City, the State capital, to remove Governor Godwin Obaseki from office.
ADP in the petition, requested the tribunal to declare that by virtue of his non-qualification, the votes credited to the PDP candidate should be null and void and of no value and that the election should be nullified.
In a suit marked EPT/ED/GOV/01/2020, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki, All Progressives Congress (APC) and Andrew Osagie Ize-Iyamu are listed as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Respondents, respectively.
The party and its candidate are basing their petition on several grounds, such as allegation that the PDP candidate presented forged documents to contest the elections.
They claimed that in an affidavit deposed to and presented to INEC in his Form CF001 in 2016, the incumbent Governor submitted a certificate purported to have been signed by the Vice Chancellor and the Registrar of the University and that in the Form EC9 submitted to the electoral umpire in 2020, the Governor attached an undated certificate with only one signatory purporting to be the signature of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan.
As part of the irregularities in the said UI certificate, the petitioners also alleged that the signature of the Vice Chancellor who signed the Degree Certificate being presented by Governor Godwin Obaseki, died in 2015 after retirement for a long time and couldn’t have signed a re-issued certificate in 2020.
In their prayers, the petitioners prayed for “declaration that the 3rd Respondent (Obaseki) presented a forged and /or a false certificate to INEC in violation of section 182(1) [I] of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended)”.
