JULY 8TH (URHOBOTODAY( Activist lawyer, Festus Keyamo, has sued the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, over an alleged certificate forgery by a serving senator, Hope Uzodinma, a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, representing Imo West at the National Assembly.
In a suit filed at the Federal High Court, Lagos, Mr. Keyamo urged the court to grant him leave to apply for an order compelling WAEC to release to him the original copy of the West African Senior School Certificate of Mr. Uzodinma.
In a letter addressed to the Registrar of the examination body dated May 14, Mr. Keyamo had told the body that he had reliable information that Mr. Uzodinma did not graduate from Mgbidi Boys’ High School, Imo State, in 1982, where he allegedly obtained his WAEC Certificate.
“We hereby demand for the Certified True Copy of the WAEC Certificate (or SSCE result or WASSCE) of the said Hope Uzodinma, if any, within seven days of your receipt of this letter, pursuant to Section 1(1) and (2) and Section 4(a) of the FOI Act,” read the letter.
Mr. Keyamo said that WAEC ignored his letter and refused to produce the certificate.
Inquiry and investigation into the names and persons that graduated from Mgbidi Boys’ High School in 1982 revealed that Mr. Uzodinma was not a graduate of the school in that year, according to Mr. Keyamo.
“On the 1st day of July, 2013 at 10.00am Festus Afeiyodion, a Counsel in Chambers visited the Respondent’s (WAEC) office with a view of collecting the Certified True Copy of the West African Senior School Certificate of Senator Hope Uzodinma but he was left unattended to till the close of work,” he added.
Mr. Keyamo’s suit against WAEC over Mr. Uzodinma is not the first time the lawyer would question the senator’s integrity.
In 2010, during the run up to the 2011 general elections, the human rights lawyer petitioned the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, over Mr. Uzodinma’s “credentials and integrity” to contest for an elective office.
In the petition, Mr. Keyamo described the Senator as a fugitive from the law who absconded after Springbank Plc lodged a complaint, in 2005, with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for fraudulent diversion and obtaining money under false pretences.
“We call on you to fulfill your promise to the electorate to field only men and women of high integrity to run for political offices by refusing to clear Chief Hope Uzodinma as even an aspirant to the Imo West Senatorial District and to advise him to submit himself to the law by going to face his criminal trial in court for obtaining money by false pretences, popularly called 419,” Mr. Keyamo had written to the PDP.
The PDP, however, stuck to its candidate and he coasted to victory at the 2011 elections garnering 85,042 votes ahead of his closest rival and former Imo State governor, Achike Udenwa, who polled 64,228 votes.
Source: Premium Times