A Group in Lagos State, Eko United Group, yesterday, gave West African Examination Council (WAEC) 48 hours ultimatum to produce Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s result or face litigation.

It said enough is enough of continued and unnecessary embarrassment at the Lagos Election Petition Tribunal.
The group also urged the governor to compel the examination body to produce his certificate or take a cue from Mmesoma Ejikeme and tender a public apology to Lagosians.

Publicity Secretary of the group, Ayodele Kumolu-Johnson, who stated this at a conference in Lagos, urged the examination body to produce a certified true copy of the governor’s result if Sanwo-Olu has lost the original.

Kumolu-Johnson said transparency and honesty are fundamental to the strength of democracy, saying the truth must be uncovered and justice must not only be served but be seen to have been served.

He said: “We, leaders and members of Eko United, in the best interest of the good people of Lagos State, take this matter extremely serious and emphasise our commitment to transparency, accountability and upholding of the principles of democracy.”

He added: “It has come to our attention that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was declared the winner of the state’s governorship election by the electoral umpire has been accused at the election petition tribunal of presenting a forged statement of WAEC result to INEC when he contested in 2019, thereby risking a disqualification as enshrined in Section 182 (1) j of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“After same WAEC failed to tender Governor Sanwo-Olu’s certificate at the tribunal and having waited this long on the governor to also put a lie to the weighty allegation by going public with the original copy of his WAEC certificate or compel WAEC to produce a certified true copy of same if he has lost the original, we deem it imperative to use this world press conference to call on WAEC to produce Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s 1981 certificate in the next 48 hours or be ready for litigation in this regard.

“It is quite unfathomable that Sanwo-Olu, who claimed under oath in his Form EC9 for the 2023 election that he sat for WAEC in 1981, refused to attach the said certificate as claimed. However, he had attached a statement of WAEC result from Ijebu-Ife Community Grammar School in his Form CF001 while standing for election earlier in 2019.

The group said it was saddening and disheartening that an institution like WAEC could expose itself and reveal culpability in the fraudulent, sudden upload of result on the Council’s portal, after the same portal had earlier proved the result to be a forged document.

“Worse still, WAEC appeared at the tribunal to file a motion to stop a forensic analysis of the institution’s back-end server, of course knowing fully well that such a development will expose the complicity in the sudden and fraudulent upload of the result. So the questions begging for answers are: Whose interest is WAEC protecting? What exactly is WAEC out to cover? Why waste public funds on engaging a legal counsel over a matter of no interest to the council?”

The group asked that all individuals, including elected officials, should be held accountable for their actions.

“This case is already a bad case as both Governor Sanwo-Olu and WAEC haven’t been able to put a lie to the allegation before them by presenting to the tribunal the governor’s WAEC certificate or an attestation letter which is the statutory document WAEC issues, in case of loss of certificate. To complicate this matter, the purported sudden upload of the result was badly done with conspicuous discrepancies in both the new upload and the allegedly forged one he presented to INEC.

“We hereby enjoin Governor Sanwo-Olu to emulate Mmesoma, the lady who recently went viral for forging her Jamb result, confessed and apologized. He should also confess and tender a public apology to Lagosians or better still, he should sue WAEC and compel them to produce his certificate.

The group, therefore, restated its commitment to serving the people of Lagos and protecting their democratic rights.
“We assure the public that we will closely monitor the proceedings of the Lagos Election Petition Tribunal and advocate for a fair and impartial resolution to this matter.

“Perjury is a criminal offence, falsification of result is a grievous crime; while believing that the judiciary will rise up to the occasion this time and restore our trust in the legal system to uphold justice and maintain the integrity of our electoral process, we will continue to provide updates as this case unfolds and reiterate our commitment to a transparent and democratic society.”