There was drama at the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Asaba, the State capital as the star witness and gubernatorial candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi, revealed that the standard bearer of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and 12th Respondent in his petition, Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru did not attend the school he claimed.
The flag bearer of APGA, Ogboru, claimed he attended Huron University, the University of Kent in Canterbury in 1993.
But Gbagi, a renowned Criminologist insisted that a verification report marked exhibit 2p17, by the tribunal shows that he (Ogboru) never attended the institution.
He told the tribunal that Ogboru lied on oath, maintaining that a copy of the verification report from the University of Kent in Canterbury showed the 12th Respondent never attended the school.
Gbagi, a former Minister of State for Education, told the tribunal that all documents he swore to, on oath, in his written statement, would be relied upon.
Gbagi, a former Chairman, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, while being cross examined by counsels to the 1st to 13th Respondents insisted that there was no records in the school to support that Ogboru attended the school.
He equally told the tribunal that at the time Ogboru claimed he attended the institution, the school was no more in existence, a revelation that shocked the tribunal judges including observers.
Gbagi, is challenging the eligibility of Ogboru and his Deputy in the last general election in Delta State, held on 18th March 2023.
The largest private investor in the State, was the first subpoenaed star witness to be cross examined by the respondent’s counsels after the tribunal admitted documents he presented.
While giving his testimonies and answering questions from the Respondent counsels, Gbagi, insisted that based on the documents he submitted to the tribunal, the verification report did not carry the name of Ogboru alleged to be a graduand of the institution within the period, particularly in 1993.
He insisted that based on the available records, Ogboru, did not attend the institution in 1993.
“These are all the graduands in that school the year he claimed he graduated. There is no any other student that existed again in that school anymore where he claimed he graduated from”.
Asked that he fraudulently superimposed the front page on the document, Gbagi said: “I never and I will never go that low as himself. The document was certified by a high court of Abuja.
“If you see his reply, he had, said he went to primary school for four years, there is no primary school in Nigeria, or Africa that is four years”.
Earlier, the counsels to the Respondents had objected to the admissibility of the documents but counsel to Gbagi, Mr. Magaji Mato Ibrahim SAN, told the tribunal that the documents were pleaded.
Chairman of the three-man panel of Justices, Justice H. C. Ahuchaogu, told the counsels that in as much they have allowed the documents to be tendered from the bar, their actions implies that they have given their consent for the documents to be tendered.
He however told them that they have the opportunity to object in their final written addresses as earlier said by them.
During cross examination, the witness, one Jerkins Ejiro Whisky, presented by Ogboru’s counsel by a member of Gbagi’s legal team, Paul Erokoro SAN, whether if he could show the tribunal the certificate of Ogboru, he said: “I am not here with the certificate but I know that he sworn to an affidavit that he has completed the school and the certificates are stated in his nomination form”.
Asked if he (witness) attended secondary school and whether he submitted his primary school result before gaining admission into secondary school, he said: “It was my father who took me to school”, an answer the threw the tribunal into laughter.
The APGA witness who was unarmed with relevant documents, said he has no knowledge whether Ogboru, did the one year compulsory National Youths Service Corps (NYSC).
He could not tell the tribunal the age of Ogboru as he could not equally furnish the tribunal whether he has seen the primary and NYSC certificates of Ogboru.
