News
BREAKING: Like Tinubu, Sanwo-Olu has no WAEC result! Gov lied on oath – Jandor
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State Governor may have a serious challenge to his suitability of remaining in office coming from unusual angle, as it is said that he did not submit his West African Examination Council (WAEC) result to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), a prerequisite for eligibility to contest a governorship election in Nigeria.
This expose is coming from Abdulazeez Olajide Adediran, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a development with which he is pressing for the disqualification of the governor and declaration of his votes in the March 18 governorship election in Lagos, wasted.
In one of the legs of the petition before the Lagos State Governorship and House of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, insists that the implication of not submitting the said certificate to INEC, was fatal and that the governor had no business contesting the election, let alone being declared the winner.
A guest of The Morning Show, a breakfast programme of Arise News Television, Adediran, told his host that he and his team actually ran a check on the document the governor submitted with the electoral umpire and discovered that the provision for his educational qualification was without the WAEC status, and that another check on the result he provided for the same position in 2019, when he first ran, was non-existent.
Hear him: “When we requested for Sanwo Olu’s form, AC9, that he submitted to INEC as candidate of the party – because after the primaries, you’re given a Form EC9, where you input all your particulars and there is a declaration page, which is the last page, where you under oath, endorse your declarations, we discovered that in the portion where they have school attended with dates where in bracket they say all claims you’ve made must be attached – he said said he wrote WAEC in 1981 and we discovered that he did not attach that WAEC certificate into that. So, that sparked off curiosity. So, we decided to look wide.
“So, what we did, was to order request for the CTC (Certified True Copy) of his 2019 examination and his 2019 Form CF001 – that’s what it was called then. In that form, we then discovered that he made the same claim of writing WAEC in 1981 and then attached a statement of result from Ijebu Ife community Grammar School. You know that statement of result will have a WAEC number and the seat number. So what we did, was to approach WAEC to say we have this statement of result purported to have emanated from you and we want to verify if this candidate really sat for it.
“WAEC said to us, simplified the issue of result verification, because we can’t continue to have embassies and institutions coming to ask us and that what we now have is a scratchcard and anybody can now buy the scratchcard. Embassies now use the scratchcard and institutions now use the scratchcard to input the numbers – that if you have the scratchcard, you’ll be able open our portal. Just put the examination number as claimed by the candidate, the year and everything and it will pop up and give you the result.
“So, we got the scratchcard and put everything in there and we discovered that the result was null and void. No result was found. Nothing! That was according to INEC report. So, we tried with other cards. I tried with my own and it popped up immediately as those of others. The petition is now a public document. The result is there and the WAEC number is there. So, anybody can buy a scratchcard and begin to check whether or not. That already has said something about him (Sanwo-Olu) lying on oath that he sat for that exam that he didn’t sit for.”
Seriake Dickson, National Leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), on Wednesday showcased Peter Obi, its presidential candidate in the 2027 election, but gave a proviso – his importance would not be at the expense of the party.
A guest on Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television, the former Governor of Bayelsa State, now Senator representing West at the National Assembly, maintained that the belief in some quarters that Obi’s entrance into the party was a favour was completely misplaced.
Instead, he argued that the opposite was the case, as it was the party that was doing its candidates a favour by giving them the opportunity to contest elective positions on its platform in the 2027 elections, a gesture that ought to be returned.
Hear him: “Don’t make it look like anyone is doing NDC a favour. No one is. Rather, the NDC and I and my colleagues are doing people a favour by granting our platform. If you are genuinely supporting Peter Obi and you are disparaging me, the leader, or the platform itself. That is nonsensical.”
Stressing that NDC had demonstrated confidence in Obi by adopting Obi as its sole presidential candidate and selecting a vice-presidential candidate without internal disputes, he said it was enough to earn its leadership the gratitude it deserved.
He added: “Nobody paid shishi. So, if a presidential candidate didn’t pay shishi to be made the sole presidential candidate and sole vice-presidential candidate, that same party cannot be the one saying that small people are underprivileged.
“I could have run. There’s no one more qualified than me. There’s no one more qualified than me to run for presidential candidate. None. There is no crisis within the NDC. Peter Obi is a cherished member of our party. On our own, we have made him a presidential candidate. Sole presidential candidate. And that counts for something. We are working well together. There’s no crisis.”
Invoking its zero tolerance on issues of security breaches, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), has clamped down on aircraft and crew of the privately operated jet that landed on a roadway in the Ogwashi-Uku area near Asaba, Delta state.
Even with regulatory body for airline operations in Nigeria informed that no casualties were recorded in the incident, it still went for its sanctions in line with its sworn position of maintaining maximum safety at every point.
In a statement on Wednesday, Michael Achimugu, its spokesman said preliminary reports indicated that the aircraft conducted a missed approach while attempting to land at Asaba airport at about 7:43am.
Achimugu: Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, said: “Reports received from personnel at the scene indicate that all occupants safely exited the aircraft and were transported to Asaba by road,” Achimugu said. The aircraft had four (4) crew members on board. At this time, no injuries to passengers or crew have been reported.
“Preliminary information available to the authority indicated that the aircraft later departed the location and returned to Lagos without obtaining the required regulatory approval. Air traffic control was informed only after the aircraft had become airborne.”
Stressing that the action constitutes a violation of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs) and is currently under investigation by the authority, he said the NCAA immediately grounded the aircraft upon its arrival in Lagos pending the outcome of investigations.
He added: “The flight crew have been placed under regulatory review while the NCAA conducts further inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the occurrence and the subsequent unauthorised departure of the aircraft.
“The NCAA has formally notified the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) of the occurrence and is coordinating with relevant aviation stakeholders, including the operator and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident.”
Stating that the NCAA immediately suspended the operator’s permit for non-commercial flight (PNCF), he added that the authority would review all operational, airworthiness, maintenance and flight-related records as part of its statutory responsibilities and take further enforcement action in accordance with applicable aviation regulations.
Achimugu said the NCAA remains committed to maintaining the highest standards of aviation safety, security, and regulatory compliance within the Nigerian aviation sector.
Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), on Wednesday, swore to the integrity of the process that led to his picking the party’s ticket, saying it remained untainted and consistent with the wills of the members.
Against the backdrop of the insistence of Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), that he stole the ticket by corrupting the process, Atiku, Vice President between 1999 and 2007, pooh-poohed the claim.
Before the former SGF Rotimi Amaechi, former Governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transportation as well as Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, former Chairman of Nigeria Economic Summit Group, both candidates in the contest for the ADC ticket, had rejected the process as flawed, even before the outcome.
Lawal, who had earlier announced his resignation from the ADC a fortnight ago and made sundry allegations of gaming the system against Atiku, had doubled down on Monday, while appearing on Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television, claiming he personally monitored the exercise and had evidence that the primary was rigged.
Hear him: “Don’t forget I was the National Vice Chairman (North-East). I was in the field during the exercise, so I have evidence. Atiku’s people are the ones trying to deny what they did. We are all human beings. We know what they did. I knew the primary was rigged at the point it was being done and the results declared.”
Regardless that neither Amaechi nor Hayatu-Deen had recanted their original position Atiku, insisted that nothing was amiss, adding that his opponents actually won in the areas of their individual popularity and stronghold.
Conveying his position through Phrank Shaibu, his spokesman, who appeared as a guest on Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television, the former VP said: “Anybody who claims rigging or irregularity in the last election should check the places and locations they won. Where are the states that Rotimi Amaechi won? If you check the figures and the margins he got there, you will know that those are his strongholds. It was not a fraudulent process.
Maintaining that the burden of proving any fraud rested on the former SGF Shaibu, Shaibu depicted his boss as the most popular among the contestants, arguing that the outcome of the event should not be surprising to anybody.
He said of the ex-SGF: “Babachir reminds me of a baby who is yanked off her mother’s breast while suckling. It is like a deprived suckling; definitely the baby will throw tantrums. He admitted on your show that his preferred candidate was Hayatu-Deen. He worked for him.”
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