Osun PDP has been up and doing in keeping people abreast with the proceedings at the tribunal where the APC, Oyetola challenged the victory of Senator Ademola Adeleke of PDP in the July 16, 2022 Governorship election.
A lot of articles have been written, different analogies have been cited, yet, load of calls and messages from the good people of the state and lovers of good governance keep coming seeking to know what is really going on in the court.
The curiosity cuts across, including the educated class. Explaining the court proceedings to one of my callers yesterday and kept asking for the meaning of some terms (jargons) in my explanation, then, it became clear to me why this has to be explained in a language of average English speaker.
Now, On Forgery Allegation :The APC has taken Senator Ademola Adeleke to court that he’s not qualified to contest the position of governorship because he doesn’t have the prerequisite qualifications as prescribed by Nigerian Constitution, on this, INEC who has the document of the governor has to present all the document submitted to her before clearing him to contest.
On presentation of these certificates, APC came up with another excuse that the certificates presented were forged! OK. “How did you know” the court asked, this question remains unanswered till the last day of APC final address!
In law, if you accuse a person of stealing, you have to tell the court what he stole, bring the owner of the item he stole to court to testify and claim the ownership with evidence. In the case of educational certificates, in law, when you accuse a person of forgery, you have to bring the issuer of the certificate (The School) to deny the certificate the person claims to own.
Taking us back to 2018 when the case of forgery first came up, the principal of Muslim Grammar School (Muslim High School) who issued the certificate to Senator Adeleke was in court to testify the Senator is a product of the school and the certificate was issued by the school.
Also West African Examination Council (WAEC) has cleared the air that the new governor registered and wrote exams in 1981. In addition, many of his secondary school mates have come out to confirm this.
Section 177 (d) of the Nigerian Constitution says :”A person shall be qualified to contest for election to the office of the Governor of a state, if
HE HAS BEEN EDUCATED UP TO AT LEAST SCHOOL CERTIFICATE LEVEL OR ITS EQUIVALENT”
This is the ground on which court cleared him in 2018 as qualified to contest and that he did not supply false information. Not stopping at the secondary school level, Senator Adeleke has gone further in his education by acquiring a Degree In Criminology at The Atlanta Metropolitan College, U.S.
This is all about the academic certificate being challenged by APC and why we want you all to be calm because if Oyetola himself is made the judge to rule over the case, he’ll dismiss his own case, dismiss himself and even impose heavy fines on himself.
Watch out for a better explanation on Over voting…Till then,.. Ẹ LỌFỌKÀNBALẸ̀
