Ondo State governor, Lucky Ayedatiwa has asked those trying to get him disqualified from the forthcoming governorship election to have a rethink, declaring that there is no vacancy in the Government House in Alagbaka.
Ayedatiwa spoke on Friday after he emerged from the screening of Ondo State All Progressives Congress APC governorship aspirants at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.
Noting that the issues raised regarding his high school certificate were borne out of ignorance, the governor said evidence abounded, indicating that he did not forge any of his certificates.
He said; “Screening is one of the exercises that has to be done among the processes that the aspirants have to go through. Mine has just been done this morning and all documents that were submitted have to be verified and questions asked where some are not too clear to the screening committee. Questions were asked and answered and at the end of the day, I have been cleared that there are no issues.
“Especially the issue that has to do with the certificate that a petition was written, today that has been put to rest. My certificates are genuine and authentic. I think it’s just a kind of mischief by some other aspirants who find me to be an aspirant to beat trying to look for a way to discredit my person, but that has been verified and put to rest.
“I think the issue really regarding that was a school they claim was established in 1980 and how come I was able to write my WASSCE in 1982. If you are a student of history, you will recall that in 1979, when the Governor of Lagos State at the time Lateef Jakande became Governor of Lagos State most private schools were taken over and schools were built for the communities. And Ikosi High School that I attended is one of the schools that were built by the regime of Lateef Jakande in 1980.
So, it is on record that the school was established in 1980 and at that time I was already in Form ‘3’ in a private school, New Nation is in Ikosi while Royal Comprehensive High School is in Ajegunle, Ikorodu, very close to Ketu. So all of us were moved to both New Nation and Royal Comprehensive High School and some other schools that were affected by the flood, we were all moved into Ikosi High School, Ketu which was built by the government and that was how we wrote our WASSCE in 1982 because we were in the first set.
I was in Form ‘3’ at the time, it used to be five years, not now that you have six years for Secondary school. So their question, the petitioner is how can a school be established in 1980 and we have a first set in 1982 that the first set supposed to be in 1985, but he didn’t take the time to look at the history.
“So investigation has been conducted, the schools are still there, WAEC office is there where you can verify the subject that I took and the year that I graduated and the school.
“You just need to buy a scratch card and go to the website of WAEC, it will be there – Ikosi High School Iketu and my name will be there with the subjects that I took and the various grades. So it is clear to everybody that my certificate is authentic and I graduated from that school in 1982.
“I should just advise them (my opponents) to repent and try to go to the field and work. If they are interested in the seat and the seat is not vacant that is why they’re trying to do all that they are doing”.
