Benue Deputy Speaker admitted forging WAEC result – PDP tells Tribunal
Benue Deputy Speaker admitted forging WAEC result – PDP tells Tribunal
Benue Deputy Speaker admitted forging WAEC result – PDP tells Tribunal
By:Lucky kenedy ose
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate in the Ado State Constituency election, Mrs. Agnes Uloko has urged the State Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal in Makurdi to sack the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate and Deputy Speaker of the State Assembly, Mrs. Lami Danladi for allegedly accepting during cross examination that she forged her secondary school certificate result.
The petitioners who are challenging the declaration of Mrs. Danladi as the winner of the March 18th, 2023 election made the appeal through their counsel, Edward Agena, while adopting their final written address.
According to the Petitioners’ Counsel, the Deputy Speaker tendered a result captioned “SSCE RESULT 2004 WAEC” allegedly issued by the Ministry of Education, Zamfara State.
He stressed that the said document which is of suspicious origin was admitted in evidence subject to the objection of the petitioners and marked as Exhibit G.
He stated that “Mrs. Danladi however did not tender the First School Leaving Certificate, FSLC, in evidence.”
According to the Counsel, while under cross-examination on who has the power to issue certificates, “the Deputy Speaker affirmed that it is the examination body and school where the examination was written that issues certificates.”
“In her response she said ‘yes’ it is true that results of examinations are issued by the bodies that conducted the examination and the School of the candidate.”
Mr. Agena submitted that the affirmative answer of the Deputy Speaker to the question established the assertion of the petitioners in the petition that “the Deputy Speaker did not sit for SSCE in 2004 and did not obtain same, contrary to the information supplied by her in her INEC Form EC9.”
He further contended that there was no evidence on the record that the Mrs. Danladi sat for the said SSCE examination at the Ministry of Education in Sokoto State as even in her reply to the petition stated in paragraph 10(i) that she sat for the SSCE exams in 2004 at Government Girls Day Secondary School Samaru in May/June 2004.
The Counsel submitted that “it therefore followed that only the West African Examination Council (WAEC) or Government Girls Day Secondary School Samaru can issue a certificate or result to that effect.
He urged the panel of Justices to “take judicial notice of the fact that SSCE results are not issued by Ministries of Education but the Schools where such exams are written and by WAEC.”
He further submitted that the Exhibit ‘ G’ relied upon by the Deputy Speaker did not emanate from the WAEC or Government Girls Day Secondary School Samaru.
He submitted that “it therefore cannot be said that the Deputy Speaker obtained an SSCE in 2004 and a careful perusal of the said Exhibit ‘G’ reveals that same was purportedly signed by the Examination Officer on February 7, 2004 whereas the Deputy Speaker in paragraph 10(i) of her reply to the petition said she sat for the SSCE exams in 2004 at Government Girls Day Secondary School Samaru in May/June 2004.”
Mr. Agena urged the Tribunal to resolve the lone issue for determination in favour of the petitioners and grant all the reliefs sought.
Counsel to the the Deputy speaker, Micheal Ibega, counsel to the APC, Fidelis Mnyim and counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Terna Agerzua, all urged the tribunal to dismiss the suit for lacking in merit.
