Exclusive!!! Ondo Dep. Gov., Agboola Ajayi in Exams, Perjury Scams …See Shocking Documents

The Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Agboola Ajayi is enmeshed in alleged examination malpractices and perjury scandals, with report already made to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), seeking immediate investigation of the scams and trial at the appropriate time.

Documents made available to WazobiaReporters indicated that while serving as Chairman of Ese-Odo Local Government Areas of Ondo State, Agboola Ajayi registered for the 2004 May/June Senior School Certificate Examination as a full-time student of Community High School, Mobolorunduro with registration number 4291420/058.

In the petition to the IGP, by Lawrence Iloh of Law MMAYIE & Associates, dated June 25, 2019, Agboola also allegedly used December 8, 1980 as his date of birth in order to be eligible as internal student of Community High School, Mobolorunduro but he later deposed to an Affidavit For Correction of Date Of Birth on the March 9, 2006 at Federal High Court, Akure, stating that he was born on September 24, 1968.

The petition, written on behalf of Mr. Akinloye Oyeniyi, read; “It is the position of our client that Honourable Agboola Ajayi registered for the 2004 May/June Senior School Certificate Examination as a full-time student of Community High School, Mobolorunduro with registration number 4291420/058.

“That contrary to the General Regulations for the examination, a bye law made pursuant to Section 23 (9) (1a) and (2) of the West Africa Examination Council Act Vol. 15 Cap. 104, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2014 which stipulates that a candidate for its May/June examination should be a student in a school approved as a centre for the examination, Hon. Agboola Ajayi was at the material time he claimed to have sat for the examination a sitting Chairman of Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State. Attached herewith are the lists of Political Office holders in Ondo State in the year 2003-2007 with Hon. Agboola Ajayi as the Chairman of Ese-Odo LGA.

“That since as a council Chairman, Honourable Agboola Ajayi could not have enrolled and sat for the May/June 2004 Senior School Certificate Examination organised by the West Africa Examination Council as a full-time student of Community High School, Mobolorunduro, it stands to reason that Honourable Agboola Ajayi must have procured the SSCE certificate number NGWASSCS5529745 fraudulently possibly by proxy contrary to the provisions of the Examination Malpractices Act 1999, Laws of Nigeria. The photocopy of the WAEC Certificate is hereby attached.

“If the above situation is not correct then, he must have abdicated his constitutional duties as elected Chairman of Ese-Odo LGA between 2003 – 2007 and for which he collected salaries fully.

“Very importantly, Mr. Agboola perjured by stating that his date of birth on the WAEC OMR Form, which he personally filled in 2004 was December 8, 1980 in order to be eligible as internal student of Community High School, Mobolorunduro but he later deposed to an Affidavit For Correction of Date Of Birth on the 9th of March, 2006 at Federal High Court, Akure wherein he stated that he was born on 24th of September, 1968. His reason for this affidavit was because he wanted to contest an election to the House of Representatives in 2007, which he won.
The photocopy of the Affidavit and the WAEC OMR form are also attached.

“Our Client is not unaware that as a sitting Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Hon. Agboola Ajayi is immune from Prosecution by virtue of Section 308, Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), but it is the position of our client that the immunity under this section does not cover criminal investigation. See the case of Tinubu & Ors V. I.M.B Securities Ltd 2001 LPELR-3248 SC, Suit No. SC 32/2001.

“We have the instructions of our client therefore to urge you to kindly commence investigations into the allegations of examination malpractices and perjury against Honourable Agboola Ajayi with a view to bringing him to Justice at the appropriate time.

“We trust that you would do justice in this matter.”

It should be recalled that a civil-society group, Ondo State Committee on Ethics and Good Governance, had called on the Body of Benchers to probe the Call to Bar of the Deputy Governor over alleged perjury.

The group headed by Olabanji Orogbemi, asked the Benchers to withdraw the law degree and the practising certificate issued to the deputy governor, which qualified him as a lawyer in 2010 on the grounds that the politician lied on oath.

In a strongly-worded petition written by Oluwagbenga Adeosun, a legal practitioner, on behalf of the group to the Benchers, the petitioner alleged that the Ondo State deputy governor lied on oath to secure his admission into the Nigerian Law School in the document he submitted to the authorities of the school.

In the petition dated May 28, 2019 and received at the registry of the Body of Benchers, May 30, 2019, Ajayi was accused by the group of being on a full time employment of the Government of Nigeria at the time he secured the law school admission and his eventual call to the Nigerian Bar in 2010 to become a bonafide and full-fledged legal practitioner.

The petitioners anchored their claim on the profile of the deputy governor published in the Ondo State Government web page: www.ondostate.gov.ng, wherein he (Ajayi) claimed that he obtained his Bachelor of Law at the Igbenedion University, Okada, Edo State and that he was called to bar in 2010 after his graduation from the Nigerian Law School.

The grouse of the group against the deputy governor was however predicated in another claim that he was elected between 2007 and 2011 into the House of Representatives for Ilaje/Ese-odo Federal Constituency of Ondo State.

While in the House of Representatives between 2007 and 2011, the deputy governor was said to have served as Chairman of the House Committee on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and also served as a member of the House Committee on Gas, Habitat, Justice and Committee on industry.

The group, while citing several authorities claimed that admission into the Nigerian Law School was on full-time basis and that the membership of the deputy governor to the National Assembly during the period was also on a full-time basis and as such he (Ajayi) could not have successfully combined his attendance at the Law School with his attendance in the House of Representatives.

Specifically, the group insisted that admission into the Law School barred anybody from full-time employment from being a student of the school because of the cumulative effects of the compulsory attendance in the practical training, lectures, attendance at dinners, attachment to chambers and court as required by law.

It, therefore, called on the Body of Benchers to investigate the claims of the deputy governor, especially how he combined his law school education with his membership of the House of Representatives, both of which are on full-time basis.

If found wanting, the group pleaded with the Benchers to immediately disbar and withdraw the Certificate of Practice issued to the deputy governor in the interest of justice, adding that with his own claim in his profile, Ajayi is not a proper and fit person to be admitted into the Noble Law profession.

“That Ajayi must have employed sharp practices not being omnipresent if indeed he participated fully in all the activities in the Nigerian Law School while sitting and performing all his legislative functions in the House of Representatives, and our client’s humble view is that Ajayi can therefore not be regarded as a fit and proper person to be admitted into this noble and honourable profession.

“It is on this note that our client is asking the esteemed Chairman and members of the revered Body of Benchers without delay revisit the unlawful, unethical and fraudulent call of Agboola Ajayi, which was erroneously done in the year 2010 with a view to withdrawing the licence and certificate awarded thereat”, part of the petition read.