Osun Guber: Adeleke Forged Certificate — Tribunal

The All Progressives Congress (APC), Adegboyega Oyetola, who ran for governor on July 16th, were able to establish a case of forgery against Governor Ademola Adeleke, according to the Osun Election Petition Tribunal. 

The tribunal said that the PDP candidate had obtained further qualifications and decided that the forgery conviction alone was insufficient to bar him from running in the election.

The tribunal, presided over by Justice Tertsea Kume, highlighted in its majority decision that the petitioners were successful in establishing a forgery case against Adeleke as EC9, the document supporting the governor’s personal information, “told a falsehood about itself.”

It’s interesting to note that the sole tribunal member, Justice B.A. Ogbuli, who dissented from the majority judgment, agreed with it on the question of disqualification.

The tribunal held: “Respondent through Mrs Joan Arabs produced FILE D which was tendered in evidence. The said exhibit FILE D is in respect of the election conducted by the 1st respondent in 2018.

“Exhibit EC9, as earlier indicated, is the affidavit in support of the personal particulars of the 2nd respondent which he presented to the 1st respondent for the election of the 16th of July, 2022.

“On page two of exhibit EC9, the 2nd respondent (Adeleke), in his handwriting, wrote under (1) School Attended (Educational qualification with dates: Thus: 2. Secondary Ede Muslim Grammar School, Eede – attended 1976 – 1981, Penn Foster High School Diploma -2021.

“3. Higher Atlanta Metropolitan State College – BSC Criminal Justice 2021.

“On page 4, of exhibit EC9, there is a letter of attestation from Ede Muslim High School dated 22nd of May, 2016.

“Learned counsel for the petitioners, as earlier stated, referred to the different names in the schools reproduced above and the evidence admitted by RW2 under cross-examination, that Osun State was created in 1991, and as such, any evidence that a qualifying certificate or document stating that it was from Osun State in 1981 is a forgery”.

As of yesterday, the PDP said that the APC overstated the significance of the tribunal decision that resulted in the dismissal of Governor Ademola Adeleke.

The party leadership, led by the State Caretaker Chairman, Dr. Adekunle Akindele, spoke to press in Osogbo and claimed that the judge ignored legal considerations and representations in favor of using the insignificant as the basis for his ruling. 

The party charged that the Benue-born judge served as the petitioners’ mouthpiece during the hearing and made personal attacks on the governor in the ruling, citing the reference to Buga dance. They did this by citing numerous instances of bias and personal hatred for Adeleke on the part of the Tribunal Chairman.

“Even if the judgement was way billed to him as we suspected by his petitioner collaborators, he should have disguised and exercised some restraints by expunging the foul languages obviously written for him in local parlance of Buga lyrics to disrespect an elected governor. He shouldn’t have gone so low, low, low!,” Akindele said.

“This is more so, when he’s expected not to be too carried away or in the least, to be aware that his warped position was a mere starting point in the legal tussle in this context as provided in our extant laws.

“For us as a party, we understand the desperation of those behind the jankara judgement. We understand the trap they tried to set against the BVAS innovation in our electoral system. We understand the desperation goes beyond the Osun election or Governor Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke.

“The evil plot is ultimately against the coming general election where in their usual fraudulent habit, millions of voter cards have either been cloned, registered with ghost names and are being made ready to be deployed especially for the presidential election, in which they could smell their total rejection far ahead of time.”