Imo Gov Poll: Uzodinma’s WAEC certificate is admitted into evidence by the tribunal
The West African Examinations Council’s (WaEC) certificate of Governor Hope Uzodinma was admitted into evidence by the Imo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Thursday while it was in Abuja.
The certification and the certified authentic copy of governor Uzodinma’s declaration of results were demanded by the tribunal from the examination organization.
The two documents bearing the name Uzodimma Goodhope Odidika were given by Mr. Omifenwa Tajudeen Tunbosu, Head of Administration at WAEC Headquarters.
The governor of Imo state received the WAEC General Certificate of Education in June 1982, along with certificate number SG 904497.
The second exhibit was the CTC of Governor Uzodimma’s affirmation of the statement of results dated December 18, 2014, which WAEC had previously sent and delivered on January 7, 2015 to the Senate President’s office.
During his oral evidence, Tunbosu acknowledged to the tribunal that the WAEC certificate belongs to governor Uzodimma and at the same time he verified its authenticity.
The documents were admitted into evidence by the three-member panel headed by Justice Oluyemi Akintan-Osadebay.
Recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, announced that senator Samuel Anyanwu of the PDP, who was the closest competitor to governor Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had received 71,503 votes out of a total of 540,308 votes.
The PDP and its candidate went before the tribunal to contest the election’s results because they were unhappy with it.
Among other reasons, they are pleading with the tribunal to revoke the Certificate of Return that declared Governor Uzodinma the election’s victor.
Among other reasons, the petitioners claimed that in order to be eligible to run for governor, Governor Uzodimma had submitted a falsified WAEC certificate to INEC.
The petitioners also succeeded in convincing the tribunal to issue a subpoena, which required INEC to turn over and submit some of the election-related materials.
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), machines, certified copies of screen grabs from the BAVS machines, INEC Forms 40G, and certified copies of voter registrations were among the papers they demanded.
