Gov Aiyedatiwa gives lawyer 7-day ultimatum to retract certificate forgery allegations

*Photo: Gov. Lucky Aiyedatiwa*

Gov. Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State, on Monday, gave a legal practitioner, Oladotun Hassan, a seven-day ultimatum to retract his allegation of certificate forgery levelled against him or be sued.

Aiyedatiwa, in a letter titled: “Defamatory Publications Against Mr Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa” written by his counsel, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, also demanded an apology in three national dailies.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the letter, dated April 8, was made available to newsmen in Abuja.

“The above matter refers. We are solicitors to His Excellency, the Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa (“our Client”) on whose behalf we write this letter on the above subject matter.

“It has come to the attention of our client that by an unsolicited letter dated June 2, 2023, you caused to be authored and submitted to the Nigeria Police Force, an unsubstantiated complaint of misrepresentation, certificate forgery, examination malpractice and perjury, against our client.

“Whereas, you are not a registered voter in or an indigene of Ondo State to possess the requisite locus to ground your said complaint.

“Your petition was cleverly routed through unauthorized sources within the police force and without recourse to our client, a report was purportedly submitted to you by the police dated February 19, 2024.

“You thereafter caused the said report to be widely circulated as the basis of a malicious design to disqualify our client from participating in the governorship primary election in Ondo State.

“You thereafter caused another letter to be written to the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the same purpose of disqualifying our client from participating in the governorship primary election of the said party fixed for April 2024.

“You have since led a vicious campaign of calumny against our client through these and other false publications, all of which have brought our client into public ridicule and opprobrium, albeit without any justification whatsoever,” he said.

The senior lawyer also accused Hassan of writing another letter on April 5, alleging that Aiyedatiwa, instead of clearing his name on the alleged forgery, the governor conspired with DIG Sylvester Alabi to compromise police integrity.

“The determination of whether a candidate sat for any examination conducted by the West African Examinations Council has been simplified by the organization through technology, and it is accessible to all.

“Upon your chorused repetition of this falsehood against our client, we took steps to conduct a verification exercise and indeed confirmed the authenticity of his West African School Certificate Examination results.

“We challenge you to proceed to do the same with the following particulars:

“Name of the Candidate: Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa Centre Number: 15592
Examination Number: 019
“Centre: Ikosi High School, Ikosi-Ketu, Lagos State. Date of Examination: May/June, GCE O/L, 1982.

“The search will bring out the following results in favour of our Client: English Language: 8; Bible Knowledge: 6; Economics: 4; Health Science: 8; Commerce: 3; Accounts: 7; Business Management: 8,” he said.

Adegboruwa alleged that Hassan’s intention was to stop Aiyedatiwa from contesting in the APC primary slated for April and the November governorship election in the state.

He, therefore, gave him seven demands, including “adequate compensation for the false and libelous publications,” against the governor within seven days of receiving the letter of face a criminal charge.(NAN)