Tribunal: Gov. Sanwo-Olu In Fresh Controversy Over GCE Certificate

Following allegation trailing Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu that he submitted fake General Certificate Examination (GCE) ‘O’ Level to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has ordered the West African Examinations Council, (WAEC) to submit its result verification portal back-end server and other information technology infrastructure for forensic analysis.

The order of the Tribunal was contained in the subpoena issued on Sunday June 25, 2023 upon a request by the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Mr. JANDOR and the Party to further prove their allegations that Governor Sanwo-Olu lied on oath in his 2023 Form EC9 by submitting a forged GCE certificate to INEC in 2019.

One of the grounds of JANDOR and PDP contained in their petition before the Tribunal was that Sanwo-Olu lied on oath in the Form EC9 that he did not submit a forged certificate to INEC before.

They averred that check in his 2019 Form CF001 however indicated that the purported statement of WAEC result, Sanwo-Olu claimed he sat for in 1981 in Ijebu Ife Community Grammar School was confirmed to be invalid on the WAEC RESULT VERIFICATION PORTAL.

But, while responding to JANDOR/PDP petition, Sanwo-Olu said he did not attach the purported WAEC certificate as claimed by JANDOR and the PDP just as the APC which is the 4th respondent in the petition, attached a printout from the same WAEC portal which also confirmed Sanwo-Olu’s purported WAEC result does not exist on the WAEC portal.

JANDOR/PDP in their reply to Sanwo-Olu and APC response, challenge the integrity of the sudden appearance and upload of Sanwo-Olu’s purported WAEC result on the verification portal and therefore subpoenaed WAEC to come and tender the said 1981 WAEC certificate under oath in court.

WAEC Representatives who were expected to be in court last week as part of the oath of witnesses deposed to 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”.

The WAEC official said that the Examination Council does not produce counterpart copies of candidates’ certificates nor retain duplicate copies of candidates’ certificates.

But, 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, however, none of such was issued by WAEC to ascertain the claim of Sanwo-Olu, thus, the order of the court directing WAEC to submit its back end-server and other information technology infrastructure for forensic analysis.

This exercise is expected to expose the date and time the sudden appearance of Sanwo-Olu’s purported 1981 WAEC result was uploaded since the same result was not there as of April 7, 2023 when JANDOR/PDP filed their petition at the tribunal.