Justice Oathman Musa of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Bwari, Abuja, has nullified the nomination of Senator Ademola Adeleke as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 2018 governorship election in Osun State; and by extrapolation, his election as governor of Osun state. Delivering judgment in the suit yesterday, Justice Musa annulled Adeleke's nomination on the ground that he violated Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution. The section stipulates that candidates for the position of governor must be educated up to a secondary school level.
The court ruled that Adeleke, who represented Osun West Senatorial District at the National Assembly, presented a fake school certificate result fraught with discrepancies and inconsistencies to enable qualify him to contest for the2018 governorship election in Osun state. The court said that his nomination into governorship election was invalid and therefore not qualified for the office he vied for.
Two chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Wahab Raheem and Adam Habeeb, had in 2018, a few days to the governorship election, taken Adeleke to court. Both of them had accused him of not possessing the requisite educational qualification (secondary school certificate) to contest the office of governor. They consequently prayed the court for an order to disqualify Adeleke from contesting the Sept 22, 2018 governorship election on grounds that he lacked the requisite educational qualification.
While the suit was in court Adeleke went ahead to contest the election and was defeated by Gboyega Oyetola in a supplementary election following a stalemate in the main poll. He took his case to the Osun state governorship election petition tribunal which overturned the INEC decision. In a split judgement, the Osun Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Apo, nullified the election of Governor Oyetola and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately withdraw the Certificate of Return earlier issued to him as winner of the September 2018 Election.
However, the chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Ibrahim Sirajo upheld the whole election. In the majority judgment delivered by Justice Peter Obiara, the tribunal set aside the rerun election conducted on September 27, 2018 for being unlawful. Justice Obiora held that the poll conducted in the seven units is unknown by law because INEC has no power to conduct it. The tribunal declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP), Adeleke in the governorship election as the duly elected governor and ordered INEC to immediately issue him with a Certificate of Return.
The tribunal agreed that PDP and Adeleke established beyond reasonable doubt that INEC did not comply substantially with the Electoral Act in 17 polling units. Consequently, over 2,000 votes credited to the APC and Governor Oyetola by INEC were deducted, while over 1,000 votes said to have been scored by the PDP and its candidate were also removed from their total votes.
The majority judgment held that Prof. Joseph Fuwape, vice chancellor of the University of Technology, Akure; the returning officer who cancelled the result in the affected units acted ultra vires. Fuwape said the election was inconclusive because 3498 votes were cancelled as a result of ballot box snatching that occurred in some polling units during the election. According to Fuwape, Sen. Adeleke, the PDP candidate scored 254,698 votes, while Oyetola, the APC candidate scored 254, 345 votes. He thus called for rerun elections at the polling units where results were cancelled. The majority judgment after deductions of the votes in the rerun poll gave Adeleke’s score as 253,777 and Oyetola’s as 253,476.
But Justice Musa annulled Adeleke’s nomination on the grounds that Adeleke breached section 177 of the 1999 constitution as amended which stipulates that candidates for the position of governor must be educated up to secondary school level. According to Justice Musa, while the court's findings showed that Adeleke entered secondary school in 1976, there was no record indicating that he actually graduated since his name was no longer seen in the school's register from 1980. Justice Musa further held that the result Adeleke attached to his form CF001, which he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was fake, 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.
But Adeleke's lawyer, Nathaniel Oke (SAN), has faulted the judgment on the ground that the judge erred in law by going out of his way to source for evidence to arrive at his "unjust conclusion". Oke maintained that the court erred particularly when it ignored WAEC evidence that Adeleke was educated up to Secondary School level as required by law.
Oke also disclosed Adeleke's intention to approach the Court of Appeal on the matter, expressing confidence that the judgment will not stand at the Appeal Court. The West African Examination Council (WAEC) had, in the course of the trial, confirmed that Adeleke sat for the May/June examination of the council in 1981. The council in an affidavit deposed to by one Osindeinde Adewunmi and filed at the registry of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, confirmed that Adeleke sat for the Senior Secondary School exams in May/June 1981. The confirmation was contained in a four-paragraph affidavit filed in compliance with the order of Justice Musa, requesting the examination body to confirm whether the governorship candidate sat for the 1981 exams.
Meanwhile, former Minister for Transport and member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Ebenezer Babatope, National Chairman of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Chief Ralph Nwosu and a human rights lawyer, Dr. Femi Aborisade; while reacting to the verdict, said the nation’s democracy is at a crossroads.
Babatope said: “I have not read the report but I envisaged it coming since the election tribunal ruled in favour of PDP and Adeleke in the Osun State gubernatorial election. There are some fifth columnists who are agents of APC among us that wanted the whole victory upside down. I am convinced that PDP won that election but if APC should go ahead to truncate the mandate freely given by the people of Osun to Adeleke and PDP, the ruling party would eventually destroy our democracy and the judiciary.”
Aborisade said it might just be a coincidence that the Abuja High Court judgment came at this point after the governorship election tribunal in Osun had ruled in favor of Adeleke and PDP. “Whatever the case is, Adeleke might still exercise his fundamental right to appeal the judgment. Aborisade however said it was shameful that contestants for sensitive public offices such as president and governors would allegedly not have the prerequisite qualifications to vie for the posts. “There are cases of people who allegedly forged certificates. Even President Muhammadu Buhari is engulfed in this type of matter, which makes it more worrisome. I think we should do something about it.”
Nwosu said the ruling APC was dragging democracy to a precipice. He alleged that INEC and various security agencies were colluding to circumvent the people’s will.
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