• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Alleged certificate forgery and attempt to scuttle Ubah’s quality representation

Ifeanyi-Ubah

The journey of Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, chairman of Capital Oil, to the Nigerian Senate came to many as a shock but for me, it wasn’t, despite contesting the 2019 general election on an unpopular political party Young Progressives Party (YPP).

Ifeanyi Ubah was the only candidate who took his campaign to the grassroots. The Anambra South Senatorial District election was no doubt, a very tough contest having the likes of Senator Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chris Uba of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Nicholas Ukachukwu of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and Ifeanyi Ubah of the YPP as candidates.

Ifeanyi Ubah after a very difficult contest and having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes was declared the winner of the Anambra South Senatorial election after polling 87,081 votes, defeating his closest rival, Chris Uba of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who got 62,462 votes.

Nicholas Ukachukwu, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, polled 51,269 votes while the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Andy Uba, got 13,245 votes.

Ubah’s victory was no fluke. He was no doubt the choice of the people of Anambra South because while other candidates were busy working on how to manipulate the election, he was busy touring all communities in Anambra South canvassing for votes.

Nicholas Ukachukwu of APGA and Andy Uba of APC have long-accepted defeat and allowed Ubah to work toward actualising his electoral promises while Chris Uba of the PDP, who proceed to court despite all plea by Anambra stakeholders not distract Ubah, had long been defeated in court.

But surprisingly, Obinna Uzoh, who never campaigned for a day is seriously pushing foist himself as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by  parading photo-shopped NECO results and sponsoring unsubstantiated propaganda against Senator Ifeanyi Ubah.

Obinna Uzoh alleged that Sen. Ifeanyi Ubah forged his NECO results because his certificate has 7 credits without one fail (F9) in biology which is clearly contained in the statement of result.
This vividly shows that Obinna Uzoh and his supporters are not in tune with the conventional practices of examination bodies; NECO in this case, and WAEC also.

Recent events have further unveiled the fact that he does not know the difference between a “Statement of result” and “Certificate of Result”. He also does not know that INEC requires candidates to submit only “Certificate of Result” and not “Statement of Result”.

It is a well known fact that Obinna Uzoh and the claimant; Anani Cletus through their lawyer swore an affidavit before the court stating that the missing F9 was the basis of their allegation.

NECO officially responded and punctured their false claim with a letter authenticating and clearing Ifeanyi Ubah of the forgery allegation by stating that they do not include failed (F9) subjects in their certificate. Obinna Uzoh seeing that he has landed himself in another dilemma has once again, shifted the goal post.

This time, he appeared to have photoshopped a NECO certificate and tried to alter the serial number, changing number (8) to (5) without looking at the body of the letter emanating from NECO which clearly stated the serial number *303865920* twice.

Why has he (Obinna Uzoh) resorted to cheap, hired media propaganda instead of writing to NECO to authenticate his claim? What is holding him and his lawyers from applying for a CTC from NECO?

Why has he not come out publicly like Senator Ifeanyi Ubah to make an official press statement or use his lawyers, supporters or family members to issue an official statement to this effect?

Why is he hiding behind the curtains to blackmail Sen. Ubah with unsubstantiated propaganda? Could it be because Obinna Uzoh knows it is a crime to clone NECO certificate/result?

All these happenings appear to have exposed the fact that he is doing everything to truncate Senator Ifeanyi Ubah’s mandate and get him out of the Senate Chambers.

However, letter from NECO authenticates the serial number which matches with the same certificate submitted to INEC by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah. In this letter, the serial number was clearly stated twice including 7 credits and excluding the F9 in Biology.

If it were to be in developed countries, by now, Obinna Uzoh will be facing lengthy jail term for forgery, blackmail and perjury against a senator.

So, my candid advice to both Obinna Uzoh and others plotting the downfall of Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, if they love Anambra South, they must desist from this evil act.

Senator Ifeanyi Ubah should be allowed to work toward attracting democracy dividends to the people of Anambra South Senatorial District, who came out en masse to vote him as their representative in the Senate.

Royce Okoro

– Okoro writes from Ihiala