Osun Guber Polls: Court annuls Adeleke’s nomination over certificate forgery

It will be recalled that barely few days to the governorship poll in 2018, two Chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Wahab Raheem and Adam Habeeb had dragged Adeleke to court, accusing him of not having the right qualification (secondary school certificate) to contest for the office of governor, praying the court for an order to declare Adeleke ineligible from participating in the Sept 22 governorship election held in Osun state.

Justice Oathman Musa, delivering judgment in the suit Tuesday, April 2, 2019 annulled Adeleke’s nomination on the grounds that Adeleke offended section 177 of the 1999 constitution as amended.

That part of the constitution reads that candidates going for the position of a governor must be educated up to secondary school level.

While the court’s findings showed that Adeleke entered secondary school in 1976, there was no record to show that he actually graduated as his name was nowhere to be found in the school’s register from 1980.

Justice Oathman further added that the result Adeleke attached to his form CF001 which he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not genuine, as it was found to be different from the one presented to the court by the principal of Ede Muslim High School, Ede, Osun State.

Senator Adeleke’s lawyer Nathaniel Oke, responding to the issue, faulted the judgment of Justice Musa on the grounds that the judge erred in law by going out of his way to source for evidence to arrive at his “unjust conclusion”.

Nathaniel submitted that the court erred particularly when it ignored WAEC evidence that Adeleke was educated up to Secondary School level as required by law.

He expressed confidence that the judgment cannot stand at Appeal Court, Oke disclosed that they will immediately commence filing of their appeal against the judgment.

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) during the court’s proceedings had earlier confirmed that Adeleke sat for the May/June examination of the council in 1981.

According to ThisDay, the confirmation was contained in a four-paragraph affidavit filed in compliance with the order of Justice Musa asking the examination body to confirm whether the governorship candidate sat for the 1981 exams or not.

Meanwhile, Pulse previously reported that In a statement on Friday, September 14, 2018, signed by the Co-convener of an anti-corruption group, Ezenwa Nwagwu, said:

“The Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) scandal involving senator Ademola Adeleke, now a gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), is one of many, which must not be left to wither off for the fact that it insults the collective sensitivity and intelligence of the Nigerian people. Beyond that, if proven to be a case of forgery, it is a criminal offense that needs adequate prosecution.

“The certificates (Secondary School Testimonial and SSCE Statement of Result) presented by Senator Ademola Adeleke, at the INEC screening for governorship candidate confirms a lot of discrepancies that need clarification in other not to suggest the obvious. Besides the irregularities in school names, subjects registered for and the fact that all subjects, except one, were still pending as at July 2018 when the result was issued, for an examination written in 1981, the statement of result states that the examination sat for by Ademola Adeleke was an SSCE (Senior Secondary “Certificate Examination) WAEC examination, while the testimonial, recorded that the same senator, Ademola Adeleke, sat for a ‘WASSCE’.

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Besides the disparities in the two certificates presented, except WAEC says otherwise, in 1981 WAEC had not commenced an SSCE for the simple fact that there was no apparent distinction between junior and senior secondary schools, it was a grade/form one to five system that was in operation, hence, WAEC could not have conducted an SSCE for Senator Ademola Adeleke in 1981.