By Peter Duru
BENUE — Benue State Governor, Mr. Gabriel Suswam, has debunked allegations of certificate forgery leveled against him by Power Steering Magazine, describing it as a ‘falsehood and poorly crafted lies”.

Reacting to the September 2010 ‘Special Edition’ of the said magazine with a lead caption ‘Is Suswam a fake Lawyer’? The Benue State Governor through his Special Adviser Media and Publicity, Dr. Cletus Akwaya, described the content of the publication as baseless and lacking in
truth.

The publication had raised the issue of WAEC forgery against the Benue State Governor among others.

But in a swift reaction, the Media Adviser stated: “With regards to the WAEC certificate and other fake documents published by Power Steering, I hereby state unequivocally that Suswam has nothing to do with those documents whatsoever”.

“The fact of the matter is that Suswam sat for and obtained his GCE O’ Level in 1982 at Government College Makurdi, Benue State.

“In 2005, Suswam, while serving in the House of Representatives, lost the original of the GCE O’/Level Certificate. He quickly notified the Police after which he applied to WAEC for the issuance of a certified true copy”.

Akwaya added that the governor had since then made use of the photocopies of the lost certificate for documentation pending a response from WAEC.

He, however, regretted that an alleged fraudster and blackmailer, who obviously got wind of the governor’s predicament decided to cash in on the situation to extort the governor.

The Adviser further opined that the alleged blackmailer ‘forged a certificate that bears no semblance with the originally one issued to the governor when he completed secondary school”.

He noted that the same documents were being circulated to media houses and institutions by the blackmailer with the aim of drawing attention to himself and probably achieve some financial gains.

Akwaya emphasized that Governor Suswam was not a cheat pointing out that he couldn’t have subscribed to forgery adding “His credentials as a lawyer, scholar, politician and public servant are outstanding. His academic qualifications were well earned”, he added.