Jandor accuses Sanwo-Olu of certificate forgery, petitions tribunal

The Lagos governorship candidate for the PDP, Azeez Adeniran Jandor has accused Governor Sanwoolu of submitting a fake WAEC result to the independent national electoral commission (INEC).

In the petition filed by the opposition party before the governorship election petition tribunal of Lagos state, the party and Mr. Adediran are calling for the disqualification of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Labour Party (LP) candidates in the election for non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022.

In the petition marked EPT/LAG/GOV/01/2023 dated April 7, the petitioners challenged the outcome of the 18 March governorship election on the grounds of substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Law as well as the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

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The petitioners also cited the omission of the Oath page in Form EC9 for the 3rd respondent, (Hamzat), which would have shown that it was not endorsed by the Commissioner for Oath within the time prescribed by the Electoral Law 2022 and without the oath page, the entire form EC9 and the information therein are worthless.

Mr. Adediran and PDP added that Mr Sanwo-Olu failed to attach a copy of the GCE O’Level result he claimed to have sat for in 1981 along with his form EC9 as required by the Electoral Act 2022.

The petition read in part: “This development sparked a curiosity, with Adediran and PDP applying for the CTC of Governor Sanwo-Olu 2019 from CF001.

“It was then discovered that a Statement of Result issued by Ijebu Ife Community Grammar School, Ijebu-Ife for May/June 1981 GCE O’ Level Examination with examination number 17624/118 which he submitted for his first term election as governor of the state was not confirmed by WAEC.

“When JANDOR and PDP approached WAEC for confirmation, they were directed to purchase the scratch card for verification of WAEC result scratch card, which then confirmed the results as not emanating from WAEC, it came back to be a fake result.”

The petitioners also hinged the disqualification of the governorship candidate of LP’s Rhodes-Vivour on his non-compliance of the party with the requirements of the Electoral Law in the conduct of the primary election that produced the candidate.

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The petitioners also said that Form EC9 for Rhodes-Vivour was signed under oath and submitted to INEC on the 4th of July 2022, exactly 37 days before the holding of the substitution primary election on Aug. 10, 2022, that produced him as the candidate of the Labour Party.

It further read: “This makes his nomination invalid. Furthermore, Rhodes-Vivour was still a member of PDP as of June 18, 2022 when he claimed, again under oath to having registered as a member of the Labour Party.

“Documentary evidence and newspaper report establishing his participation in the screening exercise for the running mate to the governorship candidate of the Lagos PDP, Dr Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran (JANDOR), on June 22, 2022, was provided in the petition.

“In line with the provision of the Electoral Act, the candidate for the office of Governor of Lagos State is not allowed to be a member of more than one political party at the time of being sponsored as a candidate for the general election, therefore his nomination is invalid.”

Mr Adediran and PDP thus prayed the Election Petition Tribunal to declare all the votes cast for APC and Labour Party in the 18 March governorship election as wasted votes since their candidates were not qualified to have participated in the election.

The petitioners added that since PDP scored the third-highest number of votes in the election and having satisfied the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, Adediran (Jandor) of the PDP was the validly qualified candidate to be returned as the winner of the said election.