The Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, has vowed to quit the race if his West African Examination Council (WAEC) certificates were forged.
In an interview on Tuesday, Eno described the certificates controversy as a distraction, saying that he is ready to accept the judgement of the court.
He said if WAEC proved that he forged his certificates, he will quit being a gubernatorial candidate and Pastor.
“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.”
The PDP governorship candidate said his strict parental upbringing would never have permitted him to forge his certificates, adding that he was not perturbed by the situation.
Eno said there was nothing wrong in resitting an exam to make up for papers he had failed to make previously, saying that his story is that of resilience and focus despite the situation he found himself in.
“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 said.
