The governor had been enmeshed in a long-drawn legal battle over the authenticity of the WAEC certificate which he presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission ahead of the 2023 governorship elections.
The certificate controversy and scandal involving Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno, has assumed a fresh dimension as SaharaReporters gathered that there is an alleged plot between the governor's proxies and top West African Examination Council (WAEC) officials to intercept and stop the ongoing INTERPOL investigation into the governor's WAEC records.
The governor had been enmeshed in a long-drawn legal battle over the authenticity of the WAEC certificate which he presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission ahead of the 2023 governorship elections.
His declaration as governor by INEC on March 18, 2023, is currently being challenged by the trio of Senator Bassey Albert of YPP, Obong Akan Udofia of APC and Senator John Akpan Udoedehe of NNPP at the Akwa Ibom Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Uyo.
At the ongoing trial, the Tribunal subpoenaed the Head of the National Office of WAEC to appear before it and testify on issues relating to Eno's WAEC records including the WAEC register, candidate's photocard of 1981 and GCE/WAEC certificate.
Furthermore, Law Icons (Solicitors & Notaries) in March 2023 wrote to the Inspector General of Police for inquiries on the WAEC/GCE 1981 certificate presented to INEC by Eno.
They sought to ascertain the authenticity of his WAEC certificate and also determine whether the holder of the certificate is Umo Bassey Eno or someone else. Following the petition, the INTERPOL was mandated to commence investigations at the WAEC headquarters in Ghana and subsequently, the national office of WAEC in Nigeria.
According to an insider source in WAEC who spoke on condition of anonymity, INTERPOL had concluded investigations at the Ghana WAEC office successfully but all efforts to initiate similar forensic investigations in Nigeria proved abortive as the team was blocked by top officials at the WAEC national office.
The police had to approach a Federal High Court in Lagos to obtain an Order of Court to enable them to access the WAEC national office for investigation and examination of records.
Upon service of the Order of Federal High Court (Lagos Division) on WAEC, the police investigation team arrived at Yaba last Tuesday but a top official allegedly prevented them from accessing and examining the records.
Sources at WAEC revealed that top WAEC directors at the Yaba office allegedly received huge sums of money in several instalments from Akwa Ibom State Government as bribes for concealing and doctoring information on Eno's WAEC records.
The source further disclosed that one of the top directors alerted the Akwa Ibom State Governor to the court-ordered search and the governor prevailed on some high-level officers to delay the INTERPOL investigations till at least the following day.
"As at 4 pm, the WAEC official said the doors to the record room were automatically locked until 9.30 am the next day before police can access the records.
“The police investigation team and court officials who came for the search refused to leave until 5.30 pm. However, they eventually left upon the intervention of a top police boss who directed them to leave and return the next day by 9.30 am," the source disclosed.
SaharaReporters gathered from WAEC sources that the police investigators left and returned the next day for the search. They demanded to inspect the WAEC register, candidate's photocards and duplicate copy of the said certificate but WAEC insisted that such records were no longer available with them, a development which was strange given that the examination body was mandated by law to maintain and keep such sensitive records.
The source further revealed that the INTERPOL investigations unsettled the national officers of WAEC and they resolved to brief their external solicitors to approach the Federal High Court immediately to seek a vacation order to stop INTERPOL from further investigating Governor Eno's records.
WAEC has also reportedly been complicit in denying all litigants including former PDP governorship aspirant, Akan Okon; YPP candidate, Senator Bassey Akpan; APC candidate, Obong Akan Udofia and NNPP candidate, Senator John AkpanUdoedehe access to Eno's examination records in proof of their cases in court.