As the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the governorship election in Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke, appeals the judgement that nullified his candidacy over his academic status, he has said that the court erred by saying his WAEC result is not authentic.
Reacting to Tuesday April 2nd judgment of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, he said even the secondary school he attended also confirmed it.
The statement added that the judge “erred in law by failing to take note of the expiration of 180 days for ruling on pre-election matters.”
I“Even when a December 2018 judgment with respect to the issue was presented, the judge chose to ignore it. We note that the judge violated the law by adjudicating over a matter whose filing and hearing period had expired.”
He wondered why the judgment had to ignore the evidence produced by the WAEC which listed “all students who sat for the May/June examination in 1981 alongside the senator, in addition to the certified true copies of his school certificate result.
“From the evidence produced by the Council, it is crystal clear that Senator Ademola Adeleke was, indeed, educated beyond the minimum requirement of ‘up to secondary school level’ as stipulated by law and therefore qualified to run for the office of governor in accordance with Section 177 (D) of 1999 CFRN (as amended). Notwithstanding, the judge still went ahead to rule otherwise.
“The only statutory body empowered by law to determine authenticity of a secondary school results is the West African Examination Council and they confirmed the authenticity of Senator Adeleke’s result by producing a CTC of the same result. What evidence did the judge therefore base his ruling on?” the statement read
“The principal appeared and confirmed that the statement was genuinely issued by the school and that any error noticed on the statement was that of the school, not that of Senator Adeleke. The school did not, at any point, disown the statement of results. From the foregoing, we affirm that the judgment of the Bwari court is a travesty of justice, a purchased ruling designed to negatively affect the outcome of Osun governorship judicial process. We declare unequivocally that the ruling, being so glaringly against tested facts and the law, cannot stand. It is also clear that the ruling cannot, in any way, stop the reality that Senator Ademola Adeleke fulfilled constitutional requirements to be Governor of Osun State.
Adeleke added that the court presided over by Justice Othman Musa of the FCT High Court in Bwari, Abuja also ignored the fact that there had been two different court judgements delivered in September 2018 which held that he, Adeleke, satisfied all requirements of the law to contest for the office of the governor.
