As the eligibility case of the re-elected Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, rages on at the election tribunal, witnesses have enumerated two criminal grounds for his disqualification.
Recall that Abiodun won the chance to rule the Gateway state again after a highly contested election, where he managed to lead the first runner-up by a meagre 13,000 votes. While the governor scored 276,298 votes as the ruling All Progressives Congress’ candidate, the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Ladi Adebutu, scored 262,383 votes.
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In its bid to cause for a review the alleged wrongful declaration of the governor as the winner of the March 18 governorship election, the PDP, as the petitioner, stated that the second respondent being Abiodun, among other things submitted a fake West African Examinations Council (WAEC) certificate.
It claimed that as at the time of the election, Abiodun was not qualified to contest the election pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
PDP alleged that the governor presented a forged WAEC of June 1978 to the National Electoral Commission (INEC), being the first respondent, on July 25, 2022.
“We had written a letter to the West African Examinations Council, to verify the authenticity of the said examination certificate presented by Dapo Abiodun to INEC,” the petitioner said.
However, it was claimed that while WAEC received and acknowledged a copy of the said letter, no response has been offered.
The petitioners insisted that contrary to the certificate Dapo Abiodun submitted to the INEC, where he was graded as First Division, the scores of latter in the subjects he purportedly sat for at the said examination is at variance with his grading as First Division.
While claiming that Dapo Abiodun did not sit for the said examinations conducted in June 1978, PDP insisted that the West African Examinations Council did not issue the said certificate.
Therefore, the opposition party, convinced of the forgery, threatened to subpoena officials of the examination body to testify.
The petitioners also alleged that Abiodun was a perpetual forger who was once arrested on the 11th day of July 1986 for an offence involving credit card fraud, dishonesty, Grand Theft (second degree) uttering forged instrument, petty theft, credit card theft and resisting arrest with violence in Miami Dade, Florida, United State of America.
The documents as presented by the opposition party alleged that Abiodun criminally used the alias of “Shawn Michael Davis” in covering his criminal activities in the United States of America before his track-down and eventual exposure and arrest by the Metro-Dade Police Department, Dade County, Florida, United States of America.
“That the criminal case against the 2nd Respondent was officially incidented as Case Number 485503-G, while he was convicted and jailed at the Metropolitan Dade County Correction and Rehabilitation Department, Dade County, Florida, United States of America with his jail booking record number – 89436,” the PDP stated while presenting a certified true copy of the Jail Booking Record of the Metropolitan Dade County Correctional and Rehabilitation Department, which includes the mug shot photograph of the 2nd Respondent, clearly identifying Dapo Abiodun, including his Fingerprint Record and signature.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
