Certificate scandal: Court dismisses case against Adeleke

A case against the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Senator Ademola Adeleke for not allegedly possessing secondary school certificate on Tuesday was dismissed by an Osun State High Court in Osogbo.

The presiding judge, Justice David Oladimeji, dismissed the suit filed by two PDP’s delegates, Rasheed Olabayo and Oluwaseun Idowu, asking the court to restrain the PDP from presenting Adeleke to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as candidate of the party for the September 22 Osun governorship poll.

The plaintiffs, who are members of PDP in Osun had claimed that Senator Adeleke did not possess Certificate and urged the court to restrain INEC from accepting Adeleke from PDP as its candidate on the basis that the Senator was not qualified, quoting Section 177 (d) of the 1999 Constitution.

In his ruling, Justice Oladimeji said the claims of the plaintiffs that Adeleke did not possess a “secondary school certificate cannot disqualify him from contesting the election because the constitution does not state that a candidate for the office of the governor must possess a certificate.”

According to the judge, the constitution only stipulated that the candidate must be educated up to secondary school level, saying “the plaintiff also admitted that the Senator attended Ede Grammar School.”

Dismissing the case, the judge, who said that whether Adeleke obtained a certificate or not cannot be used to disqualify him, maintained that the fact that he attended the secondary school is enough for him to contest.

The Nation