A staff of the Marywood Primary School, Ebute Metta, Lagos has told Justice Nicholas Oweibo of a Federal High Court in Lagos State that the All Progressives Congress (APC), candidate for Surulere Constituency II for the state House of Assembly, in next year’s general election, Mrs. Mosunmola Sangodara, forged her primary school certificate.
Testifying in a suit filed by one Olasunkanmi Kazeem Shittu to challenge Sangodara’s candidature on Wednesday, the witness said the APC candidate did not graduate from the school as claimed.
He said though the lawmaker was enrolled in the school, she couldn’t complete her education in the institution. Hence, the management of the school couldn’t have issued any certificate to her.
Meanwhile, the cross examination of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) witness brought about a lot of questions from the plaintiff’s lawyer, Barrister Adebowale Kamoru.
The lawyer asked the WAEC witness identified as Mrs Omotosho Munirat to confirm maybe passport photograph was submitted by all the students that sat for WAEC in 1982.
The witness confirmed in the affirmative.
She also informed the court that they did not have the passport photograph of the bearer on agency’s system due to technological advancement and voluminous papers at its disposal.
The witness’ statement however came as a big surprise and was alien to the judge.
The lawyer to the plaintiff in view of the fact that WAEC couldn’t provide all the required documents, asked for adjournment in order for the agency to provide the required documents.
Justice Oweibo granted his prayer and adjourned the case to 19 and 21 October 2023.
This is coming few hours after Nigeria’s first higher educational institution, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos State disowned the High National Diploma (HND) certificate presented by Sangodara.
The Deputy Registrar of the institution, Olufunmi Dada, who disowned the certificate before the court on Tuesday claimed that the APC candidate did not graduate from the school as an HND holder.
Dada, who was led in evidence by Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), with Adebowale Kamoru, tendered the school convocation graduating lists for the period between 1992 and 1997, where the name of the defendant was not found.
He further claimed that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exemption letter tendered by the defendant was forged and non-existent in the NYSC lists that came out within that period.
During cross-examination on Wednesday, Dada said that someone with the name, Tonade Rotimi Mosunmola enrolled for Business Administration programme in the school but didn’t complete her programme.
According to the copy of the records presented by the him and admitted by the Judge as an evidence against the defendant, Tonade Rotimi Mosunmola still has one carry over to write.
“Therefore, she is yet to graduate from the school,” he said.
The witness further denied issuing any certificate in the name of Tonade Rotimi Mosunmola (This was the name the defendant claimed she used in the Institution) by the institution.
Hence, the submissions by the witnesses showed that, both the primary school and YabaTech certificates the defendant claimed she had were fake.
