From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Abia All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship candidate Prof Gregory Ibe has denied allegations that presented a different person’s West Africa School Certificate (WASCE) result while submitting his expression of interest form to his party.
Two contenders for the APGA Governorship seat, Chikwe Udensi and Gen Ijioma N. Ijioma, had during separate radio programmes monitored in Umuahia, alleged that Ibe presented false WAEC certificate to the party.
However, in a statement, Prof Ibe stated unequivocally that since he successfully completed his secondary school education in Boys High School, Ihube Okigwe and took the West Africa School Certificate Examination (WASCE) there in 1983, he neither needed to forge papers nor present another person’s result.
“I have been told that my opponents, Sir Chikwe Udensi and Gen Ijioma N. Ijioma have been spreading false and wicked rumours on air about me, alleging that I presented another person’s WAEC certificate to our party.
“That is not only mischievously preposterous but also malicious since it is an established fact that I attended the reputable Boys High School Ihube Okigwe and successfully took the West Africa School Certificate Examination in that same institution in 1983.
“Therefore I didn’t need to forge papers or present another person’s certificate since I have mine”.
Going further the statement added, “The fact is that I don’t know any Joseph Ibe who wrote WASCE in 1992, but I am sure my opponents, who incidentally in their separate lines of business are conversant with the standard protocols of recruitment, established processes of verification and validation of documents, impersonation and the misdemeanor of falsification, will in due course be compelled to clear the air on this heinous scheme to undo an innocent man.
“My name is Gregory Ibe and it is incontrovertible that I sat WASCE in Boys High School Ihube in 1983 with examination number 11510034, and my certificate is still intact”.
While urging his supporters to remain calm, Ibe warned that as long as
God lives and the judiciary remain the last hope of every Nigerian, those behind what he described as the heinous and wicked defamatory act will not go unpunished.
Ibe assured that God was going to use him to deliver Abia state from the grip of elements of underdevelopment and that this will not be truncated by the selfish activities of unpatriotic people.