The Presidency and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday said the opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was already showing signs of early defeat by raising Presidency Muhammadu Buhari’s certificate saga.
The Presidency dismissed the flak from the PDP as an indication of idleness on the part of those speaking for the party on the matter, while the APC branded the criticism trivial.
“The certificate saga is a dead issue, only idle people will consider it,” the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Mr. Femi Adesina, told said when contacted.
“It is something that had been laid to rest before the 2015 general elections,” he added.
“Those raising the issue (PDP and others) are idle and they have run out of ideas. They see defeat staring them in the face and they are desperate to cling to any straw. This issue was resolved before the 2015 election.
“It is a matter of fact that when President Buhari and others joined the military, they took their original certificates from them. The military knew where they kept the original certificates of the President.
“In fact, a former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Alani Akinrinade corroborated that the military collected the original certificates of all its officers. The PDP believes it is going to lose the elections, and they will lose, and it is raising dust over a dead issue.
“The military already said they lost the certificates. But does it mean that it did not exist that the President went to school, sat for examinations and passed; attended military courses and War College.
“It does not change the fact that the President rose through the ranks to become a Major-General in the Nigerian Army and a Military Head of State.
“Didn’t those opposed to President Buhari go to court over his certificate and lost before? They will still lose this time around. It is a dead issue.”
Meanwhile, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Lanre Issa-Onilu, spoke along the same line of thought.
His words: “It is a dead issue. When PDP has something new to say, Nigerians will be ready to listen to the party.
“This certificate issue was thrashed in 2014. The President has the minimum qualification he ought to have to stand for election and he had more than the minimum.
“PDP thrives on the trivial. We want to tell Nigerians what we have achieved in the last three years and why the President should be re-elected. Instead of engaging in meaningful discourse, PDP trades on the trivial.”
Buhari had, in a sworn affidavit attached to his nomination form for next year’s election, said his certificate was in the custody of the military.
But the PDP insisted that the certificate be produced for the President to be believed.
Buhari, in an attachment to the form his party submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) listed his academic and military attainments as follows: Elementary School Daura and Mai Aduwa (1948-1952); Middle School, Katsina (1953-1956); Katsina Provincial Secondary School (now Government College, Katsina)-1956 to 1961; Nigerian Military Training School, Kaduna (1962-1963); Cadet Officer Course Aldershot, UK (October 1963); Platoon Commander Course, Nigerian Military College, Kaduna (1963-1964); Army Mechanical Transport School, Bordan, England (1965); Defence Service Staff College, Wellington India (1973-1974); and United States Army War College (1979-1980).
Tag: Certificate
-
2019: Ignore PDP’s diatribes on Buhari’s ‘missing’ certificate – Presidency tells Nigerians
-
2019: Buhari’s Certificate Saga, Unnessary Plot By PDP To Divert Attention From Issues — NDF
The National Democratic Front (NDF) has described the recent dust being raised on the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Certificate saga as “unnecessary and a needless campaign of calumny” by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to divert attention from the issues affecting the country.
In a press statement made available to journalists in Abuja, NDF national president, Comrade Audu Auwulu said his organisation is not surprised that instead of addressing any of the numerous challenges affecting the country, the opposition party is making attempt to trivialize the presidential contest.
Auwulu berated the opposition party, saying it clearly does not understand the enormity of the presidential poll, and is only trying to distract Nigerians from the achievements the country has recorded under Buhari’s administration.
According to him, the certificate saga is already a rested issue and will not be a deciding factor in 2019 election, stressing that it is sad that the PDP could not come up with something new and substantial to make the discourse about the elections issues based.
He said for the records, President Buhari sat for the university of Cambridge/WAEC examination where he passed the examination in the second division in 1961, with registration number: 8280002 amongst other notable Nigerians like former Chief of Staff at Supreme Court, Shehu Musa Yar’adua and a former President of Court of Appeal and many others from the Provincial Secondary School, Kastina.
He said besides, the constitution is very clear on the educational requirement for vying for office of the President.
He explained that instead of being bogged down on a matter that has no bearing on how Nigerians will vote in next year’s elections, the Democratic Front proposes that the electorates should rather focus on asking pertinent questions.
According to him, if there is anyone who is capable of presiding over the affairs of the country at this point in time it is president Buhari
He stated, “NDF wants to hear real issues being discussed as it has long been settled that PMB has both his WAEC and other higher qualifications to be President of Nigeria. We would rather ask the PDP some pertinent questions.
According to him some of the questions Nigerians need to ask is what would happen if Nigerians allow known looters back into power after enduring the pains of reforms for almost four years?
“If President Buhari can achieve the much he did in under four years in spite of the damage done to the country by the PDP how much more will he achieve in his second term after setting the foundation for prosperity in the first tenure?
“Can a man like Atiku Abubakar who is insincere in declaring his income be trusted to correctly tell Nigerians how much the country is earning?”
“As far as we are concerned, trying to renew controversies over President Buhari’s academic qualification is a dead issue and a needless distraction. Our hope is that they will learn like other patriotic Nigerians to move forward. It is a pity that rather than galvanizing Nigerians to ask probing questions from those aspiring to lead, the opposition is interested in keeping people entertained and distracted over complete non issues. -
Present your certificate, not affidavits, PDP tells Buhari
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to fulfil his obligation like other presidential candidates by presenting his academic certificate rather than bugging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with affidavits.
The opposition party said that a situation where Buhari has been dodging the certificate issue raises huge questions of integrity, which demand that he makes available his credentials, or apologise to Nigerians, if he has none, so that the nation can move ahead.
The National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement Friday in Abuja challenged Buhari to show proof of his ‘vaunted integrity’ by presenting his academic documents, if he has any, to INEC and put to an end his certificate saga.
According to him, “The PDP also urges President Buhari to fulfil his obligation like other Presidential candidates, instead of bugging the commission with affidavits.”
The PDP said while its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has submitted his educational and other relevant documents to INEC, President Buhari is rather seeking ways to short-circuit the system, instead of complying with set rules.
Ologbondiyan noted that Buhari knew that Nigerians were no longer interested in his claims in an affidavit wherein he stated; “I am the above-named person and the deponent of this affidavit herein. All my academic qualification documents as filled in my Presidential form, APC/001/2015 are currently with the Secretary of the Military Board as of the time of this affidavit.”
The party said that integrity strictly demands that Buhari, particularly as the commander-in-chief, writes to the military authorities directing them to forward his claimed credentials to INEC, as requisite evidence of compliance with a key requirement for election into the Office of the President, under section 131 (d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Ologbondiyan stated that the fact that : “President Buhari and the previous INEC succeeded in circumventing the law in 2015 does not make such acceptable in our current electoral process.
“Moreover, President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) must realise that even their followers, that were beguiled in 2015, are currently not prepared to accept ‘NEPA bill’ as WAEC certificate in the 2019 elections.”
The PDP urged Buhari to do the needful so as not to cause any frictions that would put INEC under further pressure ahead of the 2019 general elections. -
Much Ado about PMB’S certificate
By Philip Agbese
Elections are around the corner again. Politicians and political parties are scheming on how to take over power or how to retain power in places where they are in charge, and therefore political shenanigans, propagandas, lies, outright falsehoods and even hate speeches are all on the increase at this time.
These are not the best times for those who value character and decency. I read somewhere some people are calling on INEC to disqualify President Buhari from contesting the 2019 general elections because he doesn’t have his school certificate. Very laughable, how many times will they try the same old trick? President Buhari has been contesting elections since 2003. Between 2003 and now there have been four election circles Buhari has contested in all these elections.
At no point was the issue of his WAEC certificate questioned until suddenly in 2015 as soon as he won his party’s primaries . Those who knew he was unstoppable from there on, began to unleash different ludicrous propaganda after propaganda. From “Buhari will Islamize Nigeria” to” Buhari is terminally ill”, to” Buhari has no certificate”. All of their propaganda fell flat on their faces.
Now that elections are around the corner, they have resurfaced again with the “ Buhari has no certificate “ propaganda. It will be a complete waste of effort this time as this election is going to be about issues and not propaganda. The election is going to be about track records of the different parties while in office.
The people are going to be comparing the roads now and then, they will compare power supply now and then. The parents of the over 7 million schools pupils being fed every school day will compare now and then. The over one million most vulnerable poorest of the poor amongst us receiving 5000 Naira conditional cash transfer every month, the over half a million graduates receiving 30,000 Naira every month all of these people will compare the party in power now with the performance of those who left power in 2015. These are what the Nigerian people will be discussing in 2019 not some mundane propaganda, sponsored by some failed politicians who squandered the opportunity to better the lot of the people whilst they were in power.
Let me also use this opportunity to dismiss their lies. The constitutional requirement to run for office of the President are very clear and unambiguous. Section 131 (d) of the 1999 constitution states that: “A person shall be qualified for election to the office of the president if”, subsection (d); “He or She has been educated up to at least school certificate Level or its equivalent”.
Many legal luminaries addressed this issue in the run up to the 2015 elections, so many legal opinions on this section. One of such that will help anyone interested in more clarity on this issue is the article written by the legal luminary Prof Taiwo Osipitan in the Guardian on the 26th of January 2015. He dealt extensively on the fact that the requirement was for such aspiring candidate to show evidence of education up to or even equivalent of school certificate. In the case that your certificate is missing like every other vital missing document an attestation letter can then suffice which INEC can confirm with the school. This is a very simple matter that some mischievous people hope to draw some political points from.
President Buhari’s former school , Government College, formerly Provincial Secondary School Katsina released a statement that Buhari actually graduated from the school and that he wrote the School certificate Examination there. The school later went ahead to release the result to the public, including a copy of the result spread sheet showing other candidates who sat for same exam with their results as well. So what other evidence would the detractors of the President require before they are satisfied?
In an interview granted to the punch newspapers on the 13th of November 2016, Chief Alex Ajayi. The octogenarian who was a former director at the West African Examination Council (WAEC) mentioned in the interview and I quote him “I had the opportunity of issuing WAEC certificates to three former Heads of State; Buhari, Abacha and Babangida in the 60s”.
It is outright ridiculous and very mischievous to claim that President Buhari isn’t educated up to school certificate level. A man that rose to the pinnacle of his career . A general in the Army . He has attended several courses across the different continents of the world.
There are those who believe that the PDP might have sponsored some people to tamper with President Buhari’s documents with the army. If not, how could this suddenly just be an issue in 2015. The same forms he submitted to INEC 2003, 2007 and 2011 and this issue was not raised, then suddenly in 2015 his documents are missing. I am tending to believe in this line of thoughts by now. If not, how do you confidently wake up and then start accusing a retired general of the Nigeria army that he didn’t attend secondary school. There must be something informing such confidence may be they know something we don’t know.
In 2015 whilst President Buhari and his party were out there campaigning, telling the people what they will do. I remember a Fani Kayode and his fellow party man Gov Ayo Fayose were busy selling propaganda to the people calling Buhari all sort of names. Rather than tell the people what they have done and what they intend to do better they rather preferred abuse and propaganda. We all saw what the outcome was President Buhari trumped them at the polls with a wide margin. The Nigerian people will have none of their nonsense any more.
The Same thing is already playing out now. President Buhari as usual will not join issues with anybody. He has been focused on the job at hand, commissioning projects up and about the whole country, on the other hand those who are challenging to take over are not telling Nigerians what they will do better but want to start the nonsense they did the other time and lost, again. The propaganda that could not save them whilst in power is not likely to get them back to power now that they are out. Nigerians are interested in real issues that affect them daily. Not mundane propaganda about President Buhari’s health or certificate.
Agbese is a human rights law researcher based in the United Kingdom. -
Certificate scandal: Court dismisses case against Adeleke
A case against the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Senator Ademola Adeleke for not allegedly possessing secondary school certificate on Tuesday was dismissed by an Osun State High Court in Osogbo.
The presiding judge, Justice David Oladimeji, dismissed the suit filed by two PDP’s delegates, Rasheed Olabayo and Oluwaseun Idowu, asking the court to restrain the PDP from presenting Adeleke to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as candidate of the party for the September 22 Osun governorship poll.
The plaintiffs, who are members of PDP in Osun had claimed that Senator Adeleke did not possess Certificate and urged the court to reverse his candidature.
They also urged court to restrain INEC from accepting Adeleke from PDP as its candidate on the basis that the Senator was not qualified, quoting Section 177 (d) of the 1999 Constitution.
In his ruling, Justice Oladimeji said the claims of the plaintiffs that Adeleke did not possess a “secondary school certificate cannot disqualify him from contesting the election because the constitution does not state that a candidate for the office of the governor must possess a certificate.”
According to the judge, the constitution only stipulated that the candidate must be educated up to secondary school level, saying “the plaintiff also admitted that the Senator attended Ede Grammar School.”
Dismissing the case, the judge, who said that whether Adeleke obtained a certificate or not cannot be used to disqualify him, maintained that the fact that he attended the secondary school is enough for him to contest.
-
Dancing senator, Adeleke to know fate over certificate suit on Wednesday
An Osun High Court sitting in Osogbo has adjourned till Wednesday ruling in the certificate suit involving Senator Ademola Adeleke, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the September 22 governorship election in the state.
The Presiding Judge, Justice David Oladimeji, adjourned proceedings on Monday after all parties had accessed the relevant documents.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that two members of the PDP in the state had approached the court for an interlocutory order setting aside the election of Adeleke as the PDP governorship flag bearer over alleged non-submission of his Secondary School leaving certificate.
Adeleke was declared the winner in the PDP primary held on July 21 having polled 1,569 votes to beat his closest rival, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi, who had 1,562.
But the plaintiffs, Rasheed Olabayo and Oluwaseun Idowu, in the suit filed on July 24 sought an interlocutory order setting aside the election of Adeleke, arguing that he did not satisfy the constitutional requirements to contest the governorship election.
The counsel to the plaintiffs, Mr Olufemi Ayandokun, had earlier told the court that the certificate tendered by Sen. Ademola Adeleke to INEC and the court was forged.
He urged the court to take judicial notice of the date the certificate was issued and the year stated on it.
The counsel argued that at the time the certificate was issued, Osun had not been created as a state.
He described the certificate as fake.
Ayandokun prayed the court to adopt and rely on the written address in support of the response to the notice of preliminary objections and asked the court to strike out the counter-affidavits.
The Defence Counsel, Mr Edmund Boriomoni, told the court to also strike out the originating summons and the motion on notice for want of competency and jurisdiction.
He said that another affidavit had earlier been filed for preliminary objection and a counter-affidavit for the originating summons.
Boriomoni said there were 22 grounds, 48 paragraphs of affidavits and three exhibits marked in support of the affidavits and nine issues for determination.
He urged the court to dismiss the suit filed against his client for lacking in merit.
NAN
-
EXPOSED: Osun PDP candidate Adeleke didn’t graduate from U.S. varsity, as claimed
ADEMOLA Nurudeen Adeleke, senator representing Osun West Senatorial District and the state’s PDP gubernatorial candidate, did not graduate from Jacksonville State University (JSU), says the authorities of the public university located in Alabama, United States.
This new revelation on the educational status of the ‘dancing senator’ as Adeleke is fondly called by his supporters was contained in a report published by the International Center for Investigative Reporting [ICIR].
According to his profile on the National Assembly website, Adeleke has a Diploma in Criminology from JSU and graduated in 1986. He also graduated from Ede Muslim Grammar School, Osun State, where he obtained an Ordinary Level Certificate.
His academic claims have, however, been brutally challenged. According to recently circulated claims, Adeleke registered for GCE O’ Level in 1981 but had F9 in English Language and was recorded absent for other subjects. It also said he has no degree from JSU where he registered as Jackson Ademola Adeleke, while providing what it titled as official records of his enrollment.
Dele Adeleke, Ademola Adeleke’s junior brother, has denied the allegations and encouraged those who disagree to verify the senator’s result at his alma mater. “Do you think the APC would not have raised the issues if he did not have the authentic certificates?” he had asked.
The ICIR can, however, confirm that Adeleke did not graduate from Jacksonville State University, though he has claimed otherwise.
Buffy Lockette, the Director of Public Relations at the university, in response to a mailed enquiry, told The ICIR that though the senator enrolled at the tertiary institution, he was not awarded any degree.
“Your request was forwarded to me,” started Lockette. “According to our records, he attended JSU but did not graduate. I cannot provide any additional information. Perhaps you can learn more at http://www.studentclearinghouse.org.”
When The ICIR checked the West African Examination Council’s website to view Adeleke’s O’ level result using examination number 19645/149 as circulated, the site replied, “result not available for this candidate in the specified year and exams diet”.
The Council’s online result verification portal, which claims to contain data from 1980 to 2018, was also consulted with the same details. The result was brief: “candidate does not exist”.
Demianus Ojijeogu, WAEC’s Head of Public Affairs, told The ICIR all candidates’ results are in the custody of the Council and should be accessible on the website, regardless of performance in the examination.
“Even if the candidate has F9 throughout or is absent throughout, it is accessible,” he said. He, however, added that the Council is still working on results of candidates who wrote in 1981 and the surrounding years.
“You know there is this change of nomenclature in our examination. We used to have SSCE then WASC, and now WASSCE. So, we are trying to update the website; maybe they took some down.” He promised to confirm and provide feedback on why the results are not presently online.
Meanwhile, two members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Rasheed Olabayo and Oluwaseun Idowu, have as a result of the controversy applied to the Osun State High Court for an order setting aside Adeleke’s election as the party’s flag bearer in the September gubernatorial election.
Olabayo, in his affidavit, said the senator truly attended Ede Muslim Grammar School “but did not leave with a School Leaving Certificate having absented himself from the school leaving examinations but for English where he scored a failing mark of F9”.
One of the exhibits provided to the court and obtained by The ICIR is Adeleke’s senior secondary school examination statement of result recently collected from Ede Muslim High School. It shows that the candidate had an F9 in English Language, while grades for Literature in English, Mathematics, Biology, Economics, Islamic Religious Studies, Christian Religious Studies and Geography, were said to be pending.
Ruling on the plaintiffs’ ex-parte application on Thursday, the court gave Adeleke six days, that is till August 1, 2018, to provide his certificate.
“It will be inequitable not to allow the respondent to come and show his certificate if he has any but if given the opportunity to present side of the case, the balance which is necessary for interlocutory injunction would be adequately considered,” noted Justice David Oladimeji.
Though a newcomer to Nigeria’s elective politics, the 58-year-old senator appears to be flying from triumph to triumph. He was largely unknown politically prior to the demise of Isiaka Adeleke, his older brother, who passed away on April 23, 2017.
Following a bye-election held to fill the vacuum left by Isiaka in the Nigerian senate, he was declared to have had a landslide victory, winning in nine out of 10 local governments. He admitted this was due to his brother’s “historical goodwill” and influence.
According to him: “I was having fun during the campaign and enjoying my dance because my brother had done 70 percent of the job with his historical goodwill right from when he became an executive governor in 1991. I was always with him. I want to follow his footsteps and may God help me.”
On Saturday, Adeleke found himself a step closer to his political ambition as he was declared PDP’s gubernatorial flag bearer in Osun State, after he narrowly defeated Akin Ogunbiyi with a seven-vote difference.
Though what he notes as his target achievement is “to sponsor Bills that would be impactful on my people, especially youths and women”, the senator has in fact not notably sponsored any bills since his election into the red chambers.
On the contrary, he has become notorious for his vigorous, entertaining dance moves and his fondness for flaunting these in public ― a trend that has earned him the name, “the dancing senator”.
-
JUST IN: Amid raging certificate forgery scandal, Adeosun wins bank board chair election
The Embattled Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has been elected chairperson of the board of the African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK) amid a raging certificate scandal.
The bank, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, has been meeting in Abuja .
Recall that an online news portal, Premium Times had last week reported that the minister forged the exemption certificate of the National Youths Service Corps, (NYSC) despite graduating at the age of 22.
Adeosun will be succeeding the outgoing chairman of the Bank and Minister of Finance of the Republic of Rwanda, Ndagijimana Uzziel. The position has a one-year tenure.
The paper also showed that the minister’s exemption certificate, which she has worked for years with, is unauthentic.
Mrs Adeosun has yet to comment on the findings, and the federal government too has kept mute.
Under the Nigerian law, certificate forgery is a criminal offence punishable by either a term of imprisonment or fine.
-
Buhari’s Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun allegedly skips NYSC, forges certificate to secure jobs
This might not be the best of times for the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun as reports have it that she allegedly skipped the compulsory one year National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) programme and have been securing high-profile jobs with a forged exemption certificate obtained from the scheme.
According to a report by Premium Times, the former Commissioner for Finance in Ogun State did not participate in the mandatory one-year scheme even after graduating before the age of 30.
Adeosun graduated from the Polytechnic of East London in 1989, at the age of 22 as Folakemi Oguntomoju and in 1992, the institution changed its name to University of East London with her certificate issued in the new name.
According to her curriculum vitae, Adeosun was born in March 1967 and having graduated at 22, it was obligatory for Adeosun to participate in the one-year national service for her to qualify for any job in Nigeria.
Going by the NYSC law, section 13, eligible Nigerians who skipped the service are liable to be sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and/or N2,000 fine.
Section 13 (3) of the law also prescribes three-year jail term or option of N5,000 fine for anyone who contravenes provision of the law.
The report by Premium Times said the Finance Minister parades a purported NYSC exemption certificate, which was issued in September 2009, granting her exemption from the mandatory service on account of age.
According to the report, Adeosun’s ‘certificate’ is dated September 9, 2009, and was purportedly signed by the former director-general of NYSC, Mr Yusuf Bomoi.
But officials of the NYSC who spoke to Premium Times on condition of anonymity said Mr Bomoi stepped down from the corps in January 2009, and could not have signed any certificate for the agency eight months after. The retired brigadier general passed on in September 2017.
It is important to note that the NYSC certificate is a requirement for government and private sector jobs in Nigeria and the enabling law prescribes punishment for anyone who absconds from the scheme or forges its certificates.
Subsection 4 of Section 13 of the law criminalises giving false information or illegally obtaining the agency’s certificate. It provides for up to three-year jail term for such offenders.
According to Premium Times, upon graduation in 1989, Adeosun, who studied Applied Economics in the United Kingdom, did not return to Nigeria to serve her fatherland, but pursued fast-paced career in the British public and private sectors.
She first landed a job at British Telecoms, but left after a year to join Goodman Jones, an accounting and investment firm, as audit officer. She served there till 1993.
In 1994, Adeosun joined London Underground Company as Internal Audit Manager, before switching to Prism Consulting, a finance firm, where she worked between 1996 until 2000.
In 2000, Adeosun was hired by PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she worked for two years.
When she eventually returned to Nigeria in 2002, Mrs Adeosun still did not deem it necessary to participate in the NYSC scheme. She simply accepted a job offer at a private firm, Chapel Hill Denham.
However, ostensibly concerned that she might run into trouble for skipping the mandatory scheme, Mrs Adeosun, sometime in 2009, procured a fake exemption certificate.
The NYSC does not issue exemption certificate to anyone who, like the minister, graduates before turning 30, top officials of the scheme familiar with the matter said.
Using that fake certificate, Adeosun went on to clinch high-profile jobs at Quo Vadis Partnerships (managing director), Ogun State Government (commissioner for finance), and Federal Government of Nigeria (minister of finance).
By the provision of Section 12 of the NYSC Act, employers must demand NYSC certificates from prospective employees. The law also mandates employees to present only genuine certificates for that purpose.
Section 12 of the Act reads: “For the purposes of employment anywhere in the Federation and before employment, it shall be the duty of every prospective employer to demand and obtained from any person who claims to have obtained his first degree at the end of the academic year 1973-74 or, as the case may be, at the end of any subsequent academic year the following:-
a. a copy of the Certificate of National Service of such person issued pursuant to section 11 of this Decree
b. a copy of any exemption certificate issued to such person pursuant to section 17 of this Decree
c. such other particulars relevant there to as may be prescribed by or under this Decree.”
However, without demanding or verifying the veracity of the certificate presented by Adeosun, two Nigerian companies, the Ogun State Government and the Federal Government of Nigeria employed her at various times.
On becoming Governor of Ogun State in 2011, Ibikunle Amosun nominated her into his cabinet. She proceeded to serve as commissioner of finance for four years.
In November 2015, Adeosun was sworn in as minister by President Muhammadu Buhari, and assigned the all-important finance ministry, after a supposed security and Senate screening.
The State Security Service, charged with vetting appointees to top government positions, failed to detect that her NYSC certificate was fake.
However, Premium Times reported that the Senate, which received the fake certificate as part of the documents Adeosun submitted for her confirmation hearing, detected the discrepancy.
But it nonetheless proceeded to clear her for the top office. Those familiar with the matter said the leadership of the National Assembly used that information to blackmail and extort Adeosun for years.
The medium confirmed investigating Adeosun’s so-called NYSC certificate for months, determining eventually that it is fake.
“This one is an Oluwole certificate,” a top official of the corps said after we showed him a copy of the document. “We did not issue it and we could not have issued it.” Oluwole is a location in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, where fraudsters possess an amazing dexterity in the act of forging all kinds of documents.
Several current and former officials of the scheme said the NYSC would never issue an exemption certificate to anyone who graduated before age 30 and did not fall into the categories of persons exempted by the corps’ enabling Act.
By that law, there are four categories of Nigerians eligible for exemption certificates. The first are those who graduated after turning 30. The second are holders of national honours. The third are persons who served in the armed forces or the police for up to nine months. The last category are staff of intelligence agencies, or the armed forces.
Therefore, having graduated at 22, and with no record of national honours or service in the intelligence or armed forces, Adeosun is not qualified for exemption, officials said.
Yet, the so-called exemption certificate she holds gave age as the reason for her exemption.
“This is not the size of our exemption certificate,” another top official of the corps remarked when shown a copy of the minister’s ‘certificate’. “The calligraphy is also different”.
On another day, another staff questioned the genuineness of the ‘certificate’ based on the font of the serial number.
“Look at this, look at this other one, the numbering is different,” the staff said while comparing Adeosun’s certificate with a genuine one on file.
Adeosun’s name also failed to pop up during multiple checks of the exemption certificates registers kept by the corps, officials said.
One official, who perused the register recently, noted that the sequence of serial numbers for certificates issued in 2009 did not correspond to that in Adeosun’s purported certificate.
The signature on the ‘certificate’ is also suspect. As indicated earlier in this report, it was purportedly signed by an official who left the corps eight months before the document was made. One official described that claim as “barefaced lie and total impossibility”.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that neither the minister nor officials of the NYSC have issued any official statement as regards the allegation.
-
INEC issues certificate of return to Adeleke
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured that it would continue to improve on the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in the country.
INEC National Commissioner, Prince Adedeji Soyebi, gave the assurance when he presented Certificate of Return to the winner of the Osun West Senatorial bye-election, Mr Ademola Adeleke, at INEC headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.
INEC on Sunday declared Adeleke of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) the winner of the bye-election held in 10 local government areas of the senatorial district.
The winner, who is the younger brother of the late Sen. Isiaka Adeleke, polled 97,480 votes to defeat former Sen. Mudashiru Hussein of the APC, who scored 66,116 votes.
Adedeji advised citizens to always create the enabling environment for peaceful elections for the commission.
He commended the people of Osun West for their peaceful conduct during and after the Saturday election, saying that they have set precedence for Nigeria election.
“I must commend the people of Osun South West for the way and manner they conducted themselves in the election.
“They conducted themselves in a peaceful, friendly and ideal atmosphere for elections. They have set a role model or standard for others to emulate.
“The people of Osun have shown us how elections should be conducted,” he said.
Adedeji said that if the citizens conduct themselves in peaceful way as the people of Osun West did, the work of the commission would be easier.
He thereafter presented the certificate of return to Adedeji.
Responding, Adeleke commended INEC for conducting the election in a free, fair and credible manner.
The senator-elect also commended his constituents for their support and the way they created a peaceful atmosphere for the election.
Adeleke in an interview with newsmen pledged not to disappoint the people of the state that elected him.
He pledged to introduce free medical care and free interest microfinance in his constituency.
He advised the party never to discard a candidate with winning potential.
The senator-elect said that he was glad for the PDP that gave him a platform to contest and he won.
“I followed all the electoral process and I was declared unopposed in the primaries until it they started their manipulations.
“I used to be in the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and I am back home now.
“My interest was in APC, but it was when I got there, we discovered that they don’t practice democracy,” Adeleke said.
NAN