Certificates scandals are rocking the Social Democratic Party ahead of the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Kogi State, with both the candidate, Murtala Yakubu, and his running mate, Samuel Ranti Abenemi, indicted.
According to available information, the Department of State Services has found petitions against both credible.
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Indeed, the petitions against Yakubu, who was formerly of the All Progressives Congress, and Abenemi, who joined the party from the Peoples Democratic Party, emanated from within the SDP.
While that against the governorship candidate centred around his educational and birth certificates, that of the running mate had to do with his result from the General Certificate of Education, an examination conducted by the West African Examinations Council.
According to a petition sent to the DSS and the Nigeria Police in June this year, Yakubu was accused of having submitted a forged birth certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
While the Date of Birth submitted to INEC on his Form EC9-(Substitute) is February 13, 1978, the Date of Birth on the WAEC certificate submitted to the same INEC upon verification showed that he was born on November 2, 1978.
Another petition to the DSS and the Nigeria Police Force dated July 5, 2023 by a member of the SDP, Shaibu O. Abdullahi, alleged that the Notification of Result with number 14709101 issued on May 16, 1980 to one “Abenimi Ranti Samuel” in respect of a GCE Ordinary Level December 1979 Examination is forged or fake.
According to available information, the DSS found that the candidate number stated on the said GCE Notification of Result submitted by the deputy governorship candidate belongs to another person.
In response to official enquiries by the DSS, WAEC confirmed that Abenimi is not the owner of the Candidate Number and indeed the result contained in the GCE Examination Notification of Result submitted to INEC.
It was confirmed that the candidate with the number sat for five subjects instead of the two stated on Abenemi’s forged certificate.
Investigation also revealed that in his Form EC9-(Substitute)(Affidavit in Support of Personal Particulars), which Abenimi submitted to INEC on May 26, 2023, he stated on oath that he possesses a WAEC certificate obtained in 1979 and as evidence attached the allegedly forged GCE 1979 Notification of Result.
His form EC9 also showed that while he claimed on oath to have a First School Leaving Certificate obtained in 1971, he did not attach same to the Form EC9.
Hence, the only Certificate submitted by Abenemi in support of his qualification for the office of Deputy Governor of Kogi State is the allegedly forged 1979 GCE Notification of Result.
Owing to this, the Director of Public Prosecution in the Kogi State Ministry of Justice preferred a four-count charge bordering on perjury, false declaration, use of false document and possession of forged record contrary to the provisions of the Kogi State Penal Code Law, 2019, against Abenemi at the High Court of Justice, Kogi State.
Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which prescribes the qualification criteria for a person to contest as a Governor and Deputy Governor in section 187(2), one of such criteria in paragraph 177(d) is that such a person “has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent”.
It then follows that if a person does not have a minimum requirement or qualification to contest for the position of Governor/Deputy Governor of a State, he is not qualified to so contest for the position.
A source who spoke on the development said: “In the case of Abenemi Sam Ranti, who has only presented a GCE Notification of Result, which has been verified to be forged by WAEC, it is clear that he is not qualified to contest for the position of Deputy Governor, hence the ticket, which is joint, automatically becomes invalid by virtue of Section 187(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
“Secondly and more direct is the fact that Section 182(1)(j) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which provides for grounds for disqualification of a person from contesting the seat of Governor/Deputy Governor of a State specifically disqualifies a person who has provided a forged certificate to INEC.
“The foregoing provisions, which are clear and unambiguous and which must be given their natural meaning, gives no room for any doubt as the to the fatal effect of the forged GCE Notification of Result submitted to INEC by Abenemi.
“It is clear that in the event of the SDP winning the upcoming Kogi State governorship election, the victory will no doubt be nullified on the basis of the candidates’ legal incapacity occasioned by non-qualification and presentation of forged Certificate to INEC by the deputy governorship candidate.
“This is reminiscent of the Supreme Court case of PDP & Ors v. Degi-Eremienyo & Ors (2020) LPELR-49734(SC) (Pp. 8-16 paras. D-D), where the joint ticket of David Lyon and his deputy governorship candidate was held to be vitiated by the disqualification of the deputy governorship candidate based on submission of false information/document to INEC.
“Indeed, both candidates were disqualified by the Supreme Court and ‘deemed not to be candidates at the governorship election conducted in Bayelsa State’.
“It is respectfully submitted that this is the fate which awaits the candidates of the SDP and indeed the SDP at the election, should they win.
“Also, in the case they do not win the said election, the SDP and their candidates’ locus standi to challenge the victory of the winner of the election at the Tribunal will be incapacitated as the issue of their qualification may be raised in response to their petition or as a cross petition.”
On what remedies are available to the SDP, the source said: “Section 33 of the Electoral Act 2022 allows political parties to substitute their candidates only in the case of death of the nominated candidates or withdrawal.
“In the case of withdrawal, there is a deadline for such substitution.
“For the Kogi State governorship election, the deadline for the substitution of candidates set by INEC expired on the 26th day of May, 2023.
“Indeed, this window of substitution brought in Murtala Yakubu and Abenemi Sam Ranti as governorship and deputy governorship candidates of the SDP on 20th May, 2023.
“Hence, the only ‘remedy’ which is most impracticable is the death of the deputy governorship candidate of the SDP.
“Sections 33 and 34 of the Electoral Act 2022 provides copious provisions on this process.
“It must however be noted that in the entire history of democratic elections in Nigeria, only one substitution (arguably) occasioned by death has been recorded and coincidentally same occurred in the 2015 Kogi State governorship election, which produced the current Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.
“Going by this statistics, it is impracticable near impossible that this will repeat itself to save the doomed SDP ticket.
“While the Social Democratic Party (SDP) will not be precluded from participating in the Kogi State governorship election slated for 11th November, 2023 based on the certificate forgery scandal, the futility of the party’s participation has been exposed by the confirmation by WAEC of the forgery of the 1979 GCE Notification of Result presented by the deputy governorship candidate of the SDP on May 26, 2023.
“Win or lose, the SDP and their candidates are bound not to permanently take the reins of power for the next four years starting from 27th January, 2024.”
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