Aiyedatiwa Tells Why He Allowed Alleged Certificate Scandal To Trend

The Governor of Ondo state, Lucky Aiyedatiwa has revealed why he did not react to the allegation of certificate scandal against him.

Aiyedatiwa is accused of forging his secondary school certificate by his party men in the race to determine the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2024 Ondo state gubernatorial election.

The former Deputy Governor who became Governor in December 2023 after the demise of his principal Rotimi Akeredolu wants to retain the seat and is a front-runner aspirant ahead of the Saturday, April 20, 2024 Ondo APC gubernatorial primary election.

The accusation of forging his secondary school leaving certificate has been relentless against Aiyedatiwa whose silence made the allegations trend.

The Governor has, however, explained the reason for his action.

He recently told party leaders that he took the stance to be vindicated by the court.

 “I wanted them to file the case that I don’t have it, for them to waste their money and the case thrown away (vindicated in court). That was why I kept quiet.” Aiyedatiwa explained in a recent meeting with party leaders and members on why he should be backed on Saturday to retain the gubernatorial mandate of the APC.

The Governor spoke in Yoruba with a slight infusion of the English language was captured on Video.

He also explained why the allegation of forging his secondary school leaving certificate is false.

Dispelling the claim, Aiyedatiwa explained that “the name of the school I went to is Ikosi High School Ketu, Lagos. It is here. I have classmates. The problem that they have is that, they said the school was established in 1980. That, how can I finish schooling at the place in 1982? That I have explanations to do.

” What they should have done is to go and ask, go and find out what happened that it is like that. Was this person going to another school before he came to join them in 1980 or not? 

“The evolution of schools in Lagos when (Lateef) Jakande came, became Governor of Lagos state. He did a lot of things. There were evening schools, Morning Schools, there were private schools. He said there was nothing like that ( put a stop to them) and communities were agitating for schools. So Ikosi was one of the communities that agitated for a secondary school.

The Governor further explained that when the Lagos state government built a secondary school for Ikosi it remained empty of students.

The government reportedly transferred students from smaller nearby schools to Ikosi High School and Aiyedatiwa was one of them.

“…they (Govt) took all of us (students) from all the smaller schools around the place and took them there. And the evening students in some schools, they took them there. And from the schools they were flooded, for example, Comprehensive High School, Ajegunle IKorodu. It was flooded, They took all the students there.  New Nation secondary school. It was a combination (of students) from all those secondary schools that they took there. And we were the Seniors. We were the senior students, I was in form 3 when we were taken there in 1980. 81 promotion, 82 we were given center and we did WAEC (West Africa Examination Council, the body in charge of the process is usually informally substituted for West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination – WASCE- in discussions). We were the first set of the school. They don’t understand that. They said the school was established in 1980, and that the WAEC ought to be done in 1985. Did we do WAEC?. Go and buy a scratch card and go to WAEC website you will see all the schools, you will see Ikosi High School Ketu, you will see all of my set and you will see my name – Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa. It is there. It is Ikosi High School and it is not October November GCE, it is May/June WAEC. The one for Secondary School.”

The Governor disclosed that he did not know that his details have been uploaded until someone did an independent check, called (on the phone), and told him “I have checked it and it is there. Don’t mind them. I asked him how did you do it?, send it to me and he sent it to me and I saw that it had been uploaded.”

Aiyedatiwa who asserted that “I don’t have F9”, also urged his party men to “go and check” for his details on the WAEC website to verify his assertions.