A forensic report has confirmed that the West African Examination Council certificates of Akwa Ibom State Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate, Umo Eno, are forged.
Eno was dragged to court by Akan Okon, a contestant in the May 25 PDP governorship primaries over allegations that he (Eno) is parading forged WAEC certificate in his bid to actualise his governorship ambition.
Okon also joined the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission as defendants in the case.
A report by forensic experts submitted to the Federal High Court, Uyo, had confirmed that Eno’s WAEC certificates were forged.
The report tagged “Forensic Verification of the West African School Certificates Nos 15520232 Issued in 1981 and 15725119 Issued in 1983 to Bassey Umo Eno and Eno Umo Bassey in Annexures B’ and F’ Respectively” is signed by Prof Jideoni Charles, National President, Institute of Graphoanalysts, Nigeria.
Charles, a certified Handwriting Analysis Expert and Prof Michael Nwokolo, a Certified Security Specialist (CSS) Forensic Expert, were said to have jointly carried out the forensic investigation on Eno’s certificates.
“That the certificate in Annexures ‘B’ and ‘F’ were subjected to rigorous scrutiny with a view to cross-validating their authenticity against the certificate contained in Annexures ‘A’ and ‘A1’, and the two certificates contained in Annexures ‘B’ and ‘F’ to my report were found to be forged copies.
“That the two certificates in Annexures ‘B’ and ‘F’ have been proved beyond any reasonable doubt that one is a photocopy of the other mutatis mutandis,” Charles stated in the report attached to his statement on oath.
The Akwa Ibom State government had shared a result which it claimed was printed out from the WAEC website.
However, the forensic report confirmed that the WAEC website used in publishing the PDP’s candidate result was fake and even revealed the identity of the person who created the fake website.
“We also noticed that the website, waeconline.org.ng was created by one Olasoji Ajayi with phone number: 08092886858 through a company known as Sidmach Technologies Nigeria Limited. The website of WAEC is waecdirect.org. The obvious errors in Annexure ‘H’ when compared with Annexure ‘J’ produced from WAEC website waecdirect.org are manifest as follows:
“The subjects offered by candidates are not abbreviated. The error in writing WAEC provate instead of private candidate is a clear indication of work of an amateur and a product of lack of experience in forgery,” the report stated.
The forensic report’s analysis specifications further confirmed that the discrepancies on Eno’s WAEC certificates earlier highlighted by Akon Okon’s legal team were clear evidence that the certificates were forged.
“The name on the 1981 certificate is Bassey Umo Eno, the certificate of 1983 bears Eno Umo Bassey while the name of the supposed owner of the certificates is Umo Bassey Eno; and thus there are three different personalities involved here.
“Candidates who wrote the 1981 examination and thereabouts have their candidate numbers starting with 09…… and not 15….. as it is found in Bassey Umo Eno’s supposed certificates,” Charles noted.
The report further revealed that the signatures of both the Council chairman and Registrar on Eno’s certificates are handwritten and not machine-auto-printed and therefore not authentic.
“This finding is predicated on the fact that Annexures ‘A’ and ‘A1’ signatures are clear-cut, clean-cut, deep-cut evenly heavily loaded with ink while the forged ones are blotted, scarcely leaving any islands within the circled strokes”.
The case, which is before Justice Agatha A. Okeke of the Federal High Court, Uyo, will come up again on Monday, August 29, 2022.
Eno had vowed to quit his gubernatorial ambition as well as his pastoral calling if the West African Examination Council attests that he forged his certificates.
He had described the certificates trending on social media, alleged to be his as a distraction, saying he was not perturbed by the situation even as he expressed readiness to accept the judgement of the court.
“Anything you see on social media about my WAEC certificates is a mere distraction. If WAEC says that I, Umo Bassey Eno, have forged my certificate in 1981, or 1983 and it is proven, I will not only quit being a gubernatorial candidate, I’ll quit being a Pastor.
“Let people rant all they want to rant but let them also know that it is emboldening me and empowering me to go on.
“Everything they do is not going to distract me, what they are doing is the fuel needed to move me to the next level. There is no other commitment anyone would give than that which I have said today; my pastoral calling is not less important to me than serving the people of Akwa Ibom State.”
Eno had said his strict parental upbringing would never have permitted him to forge his certificates.
He said there was nothing wrong in re-sitting an exam to make up for papers he had failed to make previously, saying that his story is that of resilience and focus despite the situation he found himself in.
“In 1981, 41 years ago, I never planned to be the governor of Akwa Ibom State, I was barely 17 years old and knowing the kind of parents I had, I would never have thought of forging, it never crossed my mind, it was not even in the lexicon at the time.
“There is nothing wrong in trying an exam under the circumstances I grew up in and then you go to take the exam again and pass the same subject.
“There is nothing wrong in failure, what is wrong is staying down. There is something good about falling and rising, that is the story every young person must learn from me; that you can fall but you do not stay down, you grow and move on,” he had said.
