PDP governorship candidate vows to quit race if WAEC proves his certificate forged

Ini Billie, Uyo

The governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Umo Eno has vowed to quit the gubernatorial race and pastoral calling if the West African Examinations Council affirms that his certificate was forged.

Aggrieved gubernatorial aspirant, Mr Akan Okon had alleged that Umo Eno did not qualify to contest as governor of the state over an alleged WAEC certificate forgery and falsification of date of birth, and has taken the matter to court.

Okon, a former Commissioner for Economic Development and Ibom Deep Seaport, had in a suit filed at the Federal High court in Uyo prayed the court to disqualify Umo Eno as he was cleared in error by the party’s screening committee.

Speaking in Uyo on Tuesday on the matter, Eno said his strict parental upbringing would never have permitted him to forge his certificates.

He stated that nothing was wrong in resitting an examination to make up for papers he had previously failed to pass, and urged the youths not to be afraid of failure but to be resilient.

“Anything you see on social media about my WAEC certificates is a mere distraction. If WAEC says that I, Umo Bassey Eno, have forged my certificate in 1981, or 1983 and it is proven, I will not only quit being a gubernatorial candidate, I’ll quit being a Pastor.

“Let people rant all they want to rant but let them also know that it is emboldening me and empowering me to go on. Everything they do is not going to distract me; what they are doing is the fuel needed to move me to the next level.

“There is no other commitment anyone would give than that which I have said today, my pastoral calling is not less important to me than serving the people of Akwa Ibom State.

“In 1981, 41 years ago, I never planned to be the governor of Akwa Ibom state, I was barely 17 years old and knowing the kind of parents I had, I would never have thought of forging, it never crossed my mind, it was not even in the lexicon at the time.

“There is nothing wrong in trying an exam under the circumstances I grew up in and then you go to take the exam again and pass the same subject.

“There is nothing wrong in failure, what is wrong is staying down. There is something good about falling and rising, that is the story every young person must learn from me; that you can fall but you do not stay down, you grow and move on,” he stated.

The former Commissioner for Lands and Water Resources promised to create over 10,000 jobs in the private sector in his first year as the governor of the state and urged youths to ask other gubernatorial candidates about their developmental plans for the state if given the opportunity to serve.