The Director of Contacts and Engagements for the Lucky Aiyedatiwa Campaign Organisation Foot Soldiers Independent Council (LACO-FSIC), Dr. Oludare Marindoti, has dismissed allegations of certificate forgery levelled against Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, by political opponents.
Marindoti, who is also a notable activist and United States-based medical practitioner, said the accusation against Governor Aiyedatiwa was concocted for the purpose of the governoship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) holding this month, in their desperate bid to edge him out.
Marindoti disclosed this when he featured as guest on a Television Continental (TVC) programme, “Breakfast Show”, which was monitored by our Correspondent in Lagos, on Tuesday.
He explained that Governor Aiyedatiwa’s detractors had been dazed by his people-oriented programmes and wide acceptance and had become bent on discrediting him by accusing him of forging a secondary school certificate, simply because he entered Ikosi High School in Lagos in 1980 and passed out in 1982.
He said, “The issue had long been addressed and the explanation for it is simple. Governor Lateef Jakande of Lagos State relocated pupils and staff from dilapidated public schools to newly constructed schools in 1980 and Aiyedatiwa who was already in Form 3 was affected by the move, as he was put in Ikosi High School.
“He thus sat for his school certificate examination there and graduated in 1982 in an exam conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and I wonder what political detractors are trying to prove when WAEC has never come out to say that he forged their certificate.
“It’s either a disease of the eyes or that of the mind for those going around with this lie of certificate forgery. Does Aiyedatiwa look like someone who does not have a school certificate with his erudition and mental alertness?
“In any case, what is the relevance of attending a secondary school to final year before sitting for a WAEC exam? I sat for WAEC exam when I was in in SS (Senior Secondary) 2 as against 3, and I passed.”
He stressed that those accusing the Governor of forging his school certificate “are trying to win an election and they think the best way to go about it is to act like someone trying to stop a moving train”.
Marindoti added that those behind the accusation of a certificate scandal were the same people who tried to make Aiyedatiwa sign an undated resignation letter when they could not impeach him as deputy governor when the late former Governor Rotimi Akeredolu took ill.
He further stated that Aiyedatiwa, going by his performance in less than 100 days in office, had exceeded the masses’ expectations in Ondo State, to the extent that his first name, ‘Lucky ‘, is now a sing-song.
He stated, “Here is a Governor who is in the process of recruiting over 2000 teachers in public schools because he values education. The last time teachers were recruited was 16 years ago, during the tenure of the late former governor Olusegun Agagu.
“Besides, Aiyedatiwa is set to improve on the security architecture of Ondo State by strengthening the Ondo State arm of the Southwest Amotekun Security Corps, barring the outcome of the constitutional process for a state police arrangement.”