An Abuja High Court, sitting in Bwari area of Abuja, on Tuesday nullified the nomination of Ademola Adeleke as the Osun State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the election held last year.
Adeleke represents Osun West Senatorial District at the National Assembly and participated in the governorship election held in 2018.
The verdict, the court said, was based on his presentation of a fake school certificate result to enable him participate in the governorship election.
The court said using a fake certificate to contest made him not qualified to run for the post.
According to Justice Othman Musa in his ruling, Adeleke violated Section 177 of the 1999 constitution as amended.
The law, he explained, stipulated that candidates for the position of governor must be educated up to secondary school level.
He said while it was found out that Adeleke entered secondary school in 1976, there was no evidence that he graduated.
His name was not in the school’s register from 1980, he said.
The court added that the result attached to form CF001 and submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, by Adeleke, was fake.
He said it did not match the one presented to the court by the principal of Ede Muslim High School, Ede, Osun State.
It would be recalled that Adeleke contested the governorship election in 2018 and lost to Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress, APC, after a rerun.
Oyetola has since been sworn in.
A tribunal set up to hear complaints over the election has upturned the verdict of INEC, and said that Adeleke should be made the governor.
The tribunal said the re-run that saw Oyetola emerge as governor was illegal.
Oyetola has appealed the case saying that the judgement could not stand.
In the current situation regarding the verdict of the judge on Adeleke’s certificate, his lawyer, Nathaniel Oke, has vowed to file an appeal.
He faulted the judgement, saying that it was an unjust conclusion.
