Trouble for Gov Adeleke as tribunal rejects WAEC certificate presented by INEC

Certificates presented before the Osun State Election Petition Tribunal on behalf of the newly-elected governor have been rejected.

The Nation reports that the tribunal hearing the petition by the former governor of Osun state, Adegboyega Oyetola, challenging Adekele Ademola's victory rejected the document which was earlier submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission because it is blurry.

At the tribunal, Justice Tertse Kume compelled the headquarters of the electoral body to present the certificates of Adeleke after the Osun branch of INEC refused to present the certificate.

The counsel to INEC, Paul Ananaba, during the sitting informed the tribunal that INEC's chairman had sent the commission's deputy director, Joan Arabs, with the Certified True Copies of the documents.

On the presentation of the 8-page document, Ananaba sought the court's permission for the bearer of the document to leave because she had a scheduled flight to catch to Abuja.

In his reaction, the counsel to All Progressives Congress (APC), Lateef Fagbemi, said that while N305,000 was paid for the documents, two out of the eight pages brought before the court by INEC are not legible and blurry.

Fagbemi's words: “WAEC GCE Certificate of Education content is not legible except for signature and Testimonial obtained from Ede Muslim Grammar School is not clear.” Further reacting to Fegbemi's submission, Ananaba said that the INEC official can not answer on the legibility of the documents submitted by the commission to the tribunal.

He said: “We feel worried and frustrated that INEC did not bring clean copies of the documents. The scores are not on the Certificate brought and we won’t manage the documents brought by INEC which are not legible.

“Also in the testimonial, the address of the school attended was missing. So, the legible certificates must be produced.” Having heard all the arguments, Justice Kume adjourned the matter till Saturday, December 3, to allow the electoral body present clearer documents before the court.