Monday Okpebholo, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for the 2024 Edo State poll, has been summoned to respond to charges of forgery and perjury.
A Magistrate Court sitting in Abuja summoned the candidate following the complaint filed by Honesty Aginbatse, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain.
According to the complainant, there is discrepancy in the birth date provided in the nomination forms he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Okpebholo is to appear at the court on September 20 before Magistrate Abubakar Mukhtar by 12 noon.
Investigations revealed that Okpebholo’s 2023 Senate nomination form listed his birth date as March 29, 1970.
However, his 2024 governorship nomination forms contained conflicting birth dates: August 29, 1970 on an age declaration, August 29, 1972 on his WAEC certificate, and August 1, 1977 on his INEC voter’s card.
The summons read, “The defendant, on 24/03/2024, submitted a list of his personal particulars dated 05/03/2024 to INEC wherein he made a statement in item number 4 in Part B, stating that he was born on 29/08/1970. A certified true copy (C.T.C) of the list of personal particulars submitted to INEC by the defendant is attached to this complaint and marked as Exhibit B.”
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“In the same Exhibit B, the defendant made a declaration on oath dated 05/03/2024, supported by a verifying affidavit, wherein he attached several documents, including a Statutory Declaration of Age deposed to on 04/06/2022 by one Okpebholo Ojeifo Joseph; marked as Exhibit C in this complaint, and a West African Senior School Certificate with Candidate and Certificate numbers 4320545182 and NGWASSCS11023655 respectively, marked as Exhibit D in this complaint. The said Exhibit D contains a statement indicating that the defendant was born on 29/08/1972, which is false in all its material particulars.”
“This is particularly so, as the statutory declaration of age mentioned in paragraph 7 above as Exhibit C, which in law stands in the stead of the defendant’s Birth Certificate, definitively affirmed that the defendant was born on 29/08/1970.”
The allegations, first raised by the PDP have prompted a call for criminal investigations into possible forgery in Okpebholo’s documents.
Section 182.1 (d) of the Nigerian Constitution, a conviction for offenses involving dishonesty or fraud disqualifies a person from running for governorship position.
Reacting to media enquiries, Aginbatse, stated that no one is above the law.
“Edo state cannot have characters of questionable character in public office. Sen. Okpebholo must come to tell the judge why he filed four different dates of birth under oath. The APC too owe Edo citizens a public apology for fielding such a candidate,” he said.
