The All Progressives Congress (APC) Lagos Chapter has alleged that the People’s Democratic Party’s candidate in the 5th December Lagos East bye-election Babatunde Gbadamosi committed perjury and falsification of West African Examinations Council certificate (WAEC) in the documents he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
This was asserted by the Lagos state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr Seye Oladejo, while in an interview on Wednesday with our correspondent.
The erstwhile Council Chairman in his response on the chances of the APC in the coming Saturday bye-elections stated that “we have a candidate with pedigree, he is salable, a candidate with an outstanding career background. A man who knows his onions, a man who is passionate about his people, a man who has transverse the length and breadth of Lagos East Senatorial district. He has been to all the five local governments and seven LCDAs. He has been to all the 98 wards. He has interacted extensively with the youth groups, market women and men. Community leaders, religious leaders and with everybody. Our people are galvanized to work for the party, we are united for this purpose”.
When asked about the recent interview he granted a national daily on allegation of certificate falsification by the PDP candidate, the APC Lagos spokesperson averred that; “At a time like this people should be interested in those who are coming forward, political consciousness is very high. It’s a reflection of the fact that our democracy is growing. We will ask questions to really want to scrutinize credentials people are putting forward. When you’re ask questions about anybody’s school credentials like his school certificate results, university degree, NYSC certificate the best reaction is to make such certificate public for members of the public to see”.
“If I accused you of not haven obtain a degree in the university, like LASU (Lagos State University) that he claimed to have attended, even though he hasn’t told us what he really read in LASU, all he came out to say was that he has living classmates”.
“You’ll agree with me that that is not the right reaction, the right reaction would be to show me the certificate. It’s not even enough for him to publish his photograph in academy gown, anybody can be in that hall and take photographs. He has somehow attempted to turn politics and elections to a show-business, busy on social media, full of sound and fury yet said nothing”.
“Our candidate is not a man of many words, he has verifiable identities. There is no missing gap in his history, in his years of service”.
“We will also challenge him that, the result you presented couldn’t have secured you admission into LASU, prove otherwise. It was convenient for him to declare results where he has four credits and a pass. He left all those results that he scored F9, including economics, elementary economics and that happened to be the strong point of our own candidate. He is an accomplished economist, a Chartered Accountant.
“If you scored F9 in economics, that means you know next to nothing about economy, is that what he wants to take to the floor of the senate?”
“All these issues are gray areas he need to clear. He will need to clear the issues before the court. Our people will know we can’t afford to deal with a smooth operator who is just busy saying nothing to the people”.
“It’s also important we emphasis that politically he can be best be a prostitute, he is unstable, he is inconsistent. Is convenient for him to be in PDP at a time, run for gubernatorial election, moved to ADP for the same gubernatorial election and he is back to the PDP for another election. This shows desperation, it shows lack of focus, it shows a man that doesn’t mean well for the people. That is not the kind of character we want at the floor of the senate, when there is Tokunbo Abiru who is willing to give back to the state that has given so much to him.
For Tokunbo Abiru as a candidate is an opportunity to give back, he has gotten to the pinnacle of his career. The more we have the likes of Tokunbo Abiru in the senate who are accomplished, knowledgeable, experienced, who are focused with our policies the better for all of us.
Gbadamosi’s grades, as allegedly obtained from the WAEC website by APC, are as follows:
Bible Knowledge, F9; Economics, F9; Mathematics, F9; English Language, A3; Literature in English, C5; History, C5; Commerce, C4 and Biology, P7.
While the PDP candidate allegedly submitted in Form EC9 that he attended the Lagos State University, LASU, after obtaining his WAEC certificate in 1985, the APC, again pooh-poohed his claim, saying he could not have met the university requirements for admission with that “poor results.”
Consequently, the APC has approached a Federal High Court in Lagos seeking an order disqualifying the PDP and Gbadamosi from contesting the forthcoming senatorial bye-election in Lagos East.
All attempt to reach the PDP spokesperson or candidate for their reaction before going to press was not possible.
The APC spokesperson also talked on the EndSARS uprising, he alluded that “the very idea of EndSARS protest is good to the extent that it should be encourage in a democracy, a good number of people that also have opportunities to serve in government actually started as an activist. I was a student activist at Ife, I was the Secretary General of the Student Union 1985/86. That means I should be able to appreciate any situation where our youths, our people and citizens want to raise their voice in protest about anything they feel is not going well”.
“The EndSARS protest was a metaphor for everything that is not right in the country, issues of unemployment, issues of police brutality, issues of creating opportunity for the youths and women and the rest of it. The idea behind it is fantastic, but when things went wrong was when it was hijacked by the hoodlums. The youths and other promoters of the EndSARS didn’t envisaged the situation that it degenerated to at the end of the day”.
“I also need to say that all along during the protest the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu was supportive of the protest, meeting with them and even walking with them, taking their 5-point demand to the President in Abuja, giving regular feedbacks and assuring them that all grievances will be looked into. He has kept faith, where we are today, we start look into the gains of the EndSARS itself, to start looking into how government have reacted to the EndSARS”.
“Lagos State Government was the first to set up a fact finding panel which is a work in progress to put together what really transpired during the EndSARS. So is not about trading blames, nor your words against mine. We should leave that for the panel to handle. But the way the government has reacted to the extent of put in place a committee that would work on rebuilding Lagos, repairing the destroyed emoluments, edifices, police stations and other infrastructures, I think it’s germane the way the government has reacted”.
“The way the government has reacted, to extent that the seriousness and commitments has been able to elicit empathy from all over the nation, state governments, federal governments, private sector to the extent of setting up a committee that is private sector driven to rebuild the state and all the destroyed infrastructure, that’s also important. It’s also important to the extent that the governor just yesterday (Tuesday) made it very clear that the state government will now spend more on youth and women empowerments and programmes that will create job opportunities and government will create enabling environment for people to be able to be self-employed, that’s also germane”.
“So it will have an impact to the extent that people of the senatorial districts will be interested in how the state government has reacted in the aftermath of the EndSARS. The fact that government has been able to listen and re-strategize on how to meet the demands of the EndSARS protesters, so it will work in favour of our party” opined
