The West African Examination Council (WAEC) which was subpoenaed by the Lagos State Governorship Election Tribunal to tender under oath, the certificate of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has failed to do so.
Information Nigeria reports that the court had issued the order based on request of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) governorship candidate, Abdulazeez Adediran, that Sanwo-Olu lied on oath in his 2023 form EC9 by presenting a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2019.
Jandor challenged the integrity of the sudden appearance and upload of Sanwo-Olu’s WAEC result on the verification portal and subpoenaed WAEC to come and tender the said 1981 certificate under oath in court.
In a statement to newsmen, a review of Sanwo-Olu’s 2019 Form CF001 found that the WAEC statement of result he claimed he sat for in 1981 in Ijebu Ife Community Grammar School, Ogun state, was verified invalid on the WAEC result verification portal.
“While responding to Jandor/PDP petition, Governor Sanwo-Olu didn’t attach the purported WAEC certificate to counter Jandor/PDP claims, but the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the 4th respondent attached a printout from the same WAEC portal which hitherto confirmed Sanwo-Olu’s purported WAEC result to be non-existent.
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“However, a check on the WAEC website revealed that in the event of loss of the WAEC certificate, the council issues an attestation in the form of a CTC, but none of such was issued by WAEC to ascertain the claim of Babajide Sanwoolu, hence the order of the court that WAEC should submit it back end-server and other information technology infrastructure for forensic analysis. This exercise will expose the date and time the sudden appearance of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s purported 1981 WAEC result was uploaded, as the same result wasn’t there as of APRIL 7th, 2023 when Jandor/PDP filed their petition at the tribunal,” the statement read in part.
However, while being cross-examined by counsels, the WAEC representative said: “I am unable to tender the duplicate copy of the May/June 1981 G.C.E. ‘O’ Level certificate of one Sanwo-Olu Babajide Olusola.”
According to the witness, WAEC did not produce counterpart copies of candidates’ certificates nor retain duplicate copies of candidates’ certificates.
When asked, in case of loss of certificate, how a candidate of WAEC can retrieve his/her lost certificate, the witness said by approaching WAEC with evidence, or an attestation letter.
Asked why he didn’t bring up the said attestation for Sanwo-Olu, he had no answer to give.
On further interrogation, the counsel asked the WAEC witness if a discrepancy in names could suggest that such results do not belong to the same person, and he said “most likely.”
Meanwhile, the tribunal issued another subpoena to WAEC to submit its result verification back-end server and other information technology infrastructure for forensic analysis in the presence of the court and all parties.
