As the stakes get higher in the September 21 gubernatorial election in Edo State, a pall of doubt seems to be eclipsing the candidacy of the All-Progressives Congress, APC flag bearer, Monday Okpebholo as he has been summoned by an Abuja court to answer to allegation of age falsification due to discrepancies in his documents.
In what is apparently another major distraction to his campaign, especially coming on the heels of a convoy accident involving his campaign train on Thursday which killed five people, the ruling People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) seemed to be gloating over Okpebholo’s adversity, is already upbeat about the likelihood of the major opposition party not participating in the election.
Revealing the facts of the case, Crusoe Osagie, special adviser to the Governor Obaseki on media projects, and head of the Oredo local government campaign council of the PDP, said gleefully that “With the court summon for the candidate to answer to criminal charges, it is not clear if Okpebholo will be available to participate in the coming election in Edo State”.
According to him, “The case pertains to conflicting date of birth claims Okpebholo made under oath in his nomination forms submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest the 2024 governorship election. The case, with suit no CR/W22/816/2024, is between Mr. Honesty Aginbatse and Senator Monday Okpebholo. The Magistrate summoned Okpebholo to appear in court on Friday, September 20, 2024, a day to the governorship election billed for September 21”.
The court reportedly ruled that “Whereas your attendance is required to answer to a charge of making false statement on oath, you are summoned to appear in person before the Magistrate Court at Wuse Zone 2 on the 20th of September 2024 at 12 noon.”
Aginbatse had complained that Okpebholo, “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 thereof to the effect 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 complainant and marked as Exhibit B.
He also argued that “in the same Exhibit B, the defendant made a declaration on oath dated the same 05/03/2024 deposed as a verifying affidavit in support 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 to the effect 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, has definitively affirmed that the defendant was born on 29/08/1970.”