The Poisoned Chalice!
Edo 2020…Land mines littered the road to APC candidacy!
In the run up to the Edo 2020 elections, many permutations were made and manipulations perfected in the APC. The EPM faction led by The godfather in-Chief, Adams Oshiomhole, threw caution to the wind. Arrogant as he was, he believed he could change water to wine!
In his usual brazen manner and transactional approach to politics, he forced Gani Audu on the party and it’s candidate as the deputy governorship candidate of the party.
He was aware of the baggage Gani carried, he was aware Edo PDP would not ignore or turn a blind eye to the gross discrepancies Gani Audu was about to submit to INEC.
But Adams cared less, because he believed he could do all things… it was rumored that the candidate spotted the red flag, but was overruled as acceptance of Gani Audu was the condition for his unflinching support !
Running mate of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the September 19 governorship election in Edo State, Gani Audu, was embroiled in a certificate forgery case, as the documents he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showed huge discrepancies in his academic qualifications and other means of identification.
The discrepancies appeared in a number of documents and showed a trail similar to the inconsistencies found in the academic credentials of the sacked deputy governor-elect of Bayelsa State, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, which caused the APC to lose the state after the Supreme Court ruled that his certificates were defective thereby nullifying the party’s ticket in that state’s recent governorship election.
Hon Sunday Kadiri, a chieftain of PDP from Ogbonna ward4 in Etsako Central Local government area, instituted a court case at the Edo State High Court in Benin City, seeking the court to disqualify the candidate of the APC as result of the defective certificates and means of identification .
Hon Kadiri asked the court to rule that the certificates submitted by Audu are forged and that he was not fit to stand for the September 19 governorship election in Edo.
In the documents, while Gani Audu swore to an affidavit submitted to INEC with his name as Audu Abudu Ganiyu, his other documents bore conflicting names. Legal experts who assessed the documents, said, “While his name on the affidavit is Audu Abudu Ganiyu, in his voter’s card, his name is Audu Abdul Ganiyu. Likewise, in his APC membership card, his name appears as Gani Audu. The WASSCE/GCE certificate he submitted bears Audu Ahudu Ganeyu.
His APC membership card bears the name Audu Gani. The discrepancies are bewildering and violates section 182 (1) (j) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). There is no way we can say that a person with this conflict of names is the same as the Gani Audu who served two terms as council chairman and won election for a second term as a lawmaker into the Edo State House of Assembly. The only explanation one can hazard is that he may have used the academic credentials of another person and tried to pass off as that person.
“The case is watertight and may well spell the end of the APC campaign trail as they are sure to suffer the same fate as their party’s candidate in Bayelsa, who had similar liabilities in his certificate.”
Their candidate’s eligibility was queried, the right of a faction of APC to conduct the primaries was queried and the deputy governorship candidacy was queried.
Land mines littered the road to the APC candidacy, it was inevitable that at least one would be detonated!
The APC Edo 2020 ticket was indeed a poisoned chalice!
By CRSDigest
