WAEC Makes U-Turn, Presents  CTC Of Abiodun’s Result To  Ogun Tribunal 

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) took a surprising turn as it submitted a Certified True Copy of Ogun State, Governor Dapo Abiodun’s result to  the Ogun State Election Petition Tribunal.

This move comes after an earlier claim that the council does not retain duplicate certificates.

An official from WAEC’s Lagos office, Olufemi Olaleye, had previously appeared before the Isabo-based tribunal on July 20 following a subpoena.

Despite being expected to provide Abiodun’s certificate, Olaleye stated that he did not possess it, asserting that the council does not retain duplicate certificates.

He explained that original certificates are forwarded for verification when needed.

In a twist, another WAEC representative, Fasasi Adetunji Sarafa, presented a certified true copy of Abiodun’s WAEC result at the tribunal on Friday.

Sarafa, acting under a subpoena from WAEC’s Lagos headquarters, tendered the result as exhibit RA3 before being dismissed by the tribunal.

While the respondents did not raise objections, the petitioners’ counsel, Gordy Uche, expressed skepticism, reserving detailed comments for the final addresses.

Uche stated, “We have a serious objection. Looking on the face of it, this does not look like WAEC result.”

The backdrop to this development lies in allegations made by Ladi Adebutu, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the March 18 governorship election.

Adebutu had accused Abiodun of forging his WAEC certificate. According to Adebutu’s petition, Abiodun purportedly presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on July 25, 2022.

Adebutu also noted that his attempts to verify the authenticity of the certificate through WAEC had gone unanswered, and he intends to subpoena WAEC officials during the trial to attest to the falsity of the presented certificate.