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One of the most painful judicial decisions in Nigeria was the Supreme Court decision that stopped the swearing in of David Lyon and Biobarakuma Wanagagha Degi-Eremienyo, governor-elect and deputy governor-elect, on the grounds that the names on academic documents, which the deputy governor-elect relied upon as qualifications to contest the election, were irregular.
The irregularity in the names was such that the names on his certificates, though being similar, were not as exactly as on his INEC nomination form.
The Supreme Court then held that “it is clearly fraudulent for one person to allegedly bear several names that he used variously, chamelonically to suit the changing environment.”
There are fears that this painful outcome may repeat itself in Kaduna State, as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Hon. Isa Mohammed Ashiru, is in court seeking to enforce his rights against what he said was defamation of character against one Prof. Muhammed Sani Bello.
Ashiru had accused Bello of defamation for claiming, in an interview he granted the BBC Hausa Service in November 2018, that he (Ashiru) presented to INEC a June 1980 General Certificate of Education (GCE), which allegedly did not belong to him because the name on the certificate was Ashiru Mohammed Isa.
According to Bello, the name Ashiru Mohammed Isa, as written on the GCE certificate, is not the same as Isa Mohammed Ashiru, which is listed on the candidate’s INEC FORM C001 for the 2019 governorship election.
The GCE certificate recorded Ashiru as scoring a pass in Literature in English, a good in Islamic Religious Knowledge and a credit in Economics.
In his suit, still before a High Court in the state, Ashiru asked for an order directing Bello “to retract his defamatory/libelous statement of, and concerning the plaintiff by publishing a retraction on social media, print and electronic media, which enjoys wide circulation and reach within Nigeria” as well as “pay the plaintiff the sun of N100 million for defamation of character” among other requests.
To prove Bello wrong, Ashiru made efforts to show that he was educated even to master’d degree level. To this effect, he filed other certificates obtained by him.
These included pre-national diploma from Katsina Polytechnics (Now, Hassan Usman Katina Polytechnic) in 1983, a national diploma in Business Administration from the same polytechnic in 1985, a higher national diploma from Kaduna Polytechnic in 1989 and a master of public policy and administration from Bayero University, Kano, in 2002.
However, Bello said the names on the certificates were differently listed.
For instance, his HND certificate bore Mohammed Ashiru Isa, while his post-graduate diploma certificate from the same institution bore Isa Mohammed Ashiru and his master’s degree certificate from Bayero University had Ashiru Mohammed Isa on it.
His National Youth Service Certificate also had Mohammed Ashiru Isa, while a certificate of participation in a course on “Current Affairs and World Politics for Public Officers,” which he attended at West London College in June 2008 had Isa M. Ashiru on it.
Also, the candidate’s certification from an Oxford Programme on negotiation had Isa Ashiru while a Katsina Polytechnic Student Union certificate issued to him as a member of parliament had Isa Mohammed Asheer on it.
All these documents were filed before the court though there are no affidavits sworn to before any commissioner for oaths to the effect that all the names as captured in all the certificates refer to the same person.
In the interview complained of, Bello, who is of the Department of Accounting at Kaduna State University (KASU), while addressing the said BBC, also questioned the PDP candidate’s certificates.
He had said: “This is somebody who read business administration at diploma level, and that is ordinary diploma, read business administration at higher national diploma level, attended a postgraduate programme at Kaduna Polytechnic, and then later attended a master’s degree programme with Bayero University. Is it possible? I mean we have all gone to school.
“Is it possible for you to accomplish this kind of studies and get certificates with this kind of two credits in all related subjects –economics and Islamic studies? So, I believe it is not possible and, as a lecturer in the university, I know it is not possible”.
The suit, which emanated from an allegedly defamatory comment by Bello in 2018 and was instituted as suit KDH/KAD/638/2021, will come up again in court on November 15, 2022.
However, it is now being used by other political parties in the state to seek to derail PDP in the next governorship election. How the PDP candidate comes out of it would depend on how well he is able to prove that all the names, as written on his certificates, refer to him.
But, the question that many people are now asking is if the matter has the capacity to derail the PDP candidate’s chances at the 2023 election, given the issues in the suit generated in 2018 against Ashiru as candidate of PDP at the time.
Also, there are questions about the validity of the suit given that the defendant had since left the PDP and joined APC. Some people are of the opinion that, by the fact of leaving the PDP for APC, the defendant may no longer have the locus standi to pursue the suit and, secondly, being a pre-2019 election suit, the facts of the allegation and issues raised by the defendant may not hold strongly against Ashiru as PDP candidate for the 2023 election because his candidacy for next year’s election may not be affected by the outcome of the suit.
That notwithstanding, the question many of those following the case closely are now asking is why Ashiru waited till 2021 to institute an action for defamation against Prof. Bello for an alleged offence, which emanated in 2018.
