A Lagos-based civil society group has dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the State Security Service (SSS), and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to court over Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun, accusing him of presenting conflicting academic credentials and lying under oath.
The Human Global Resource Initiative is seeking a restraining order from the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court to prevent Mr. Abiodun from being nominated or fielded for any elective office until he clarifies alleged discrepancies in his educational records from primary school to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Other political parties, including the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party, and Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), were also listed as defendants in the suit.
The suit highlights contradictions in Mr. Abiodun’s past electoral forms. While contesting a senatorial seat in 2015, he claimed to have attended “Comprehensive High School Ayetoro State Primary School,” but in 2019, as a governorship candidate, he stated he attended “International Primary School Ayetoro.”
Investigations by the Yewa North Local Government Education Authority in April 2022 revealed that “International Primary School Ayetoro” did not exist at the time he claimed.
“The Comprehensive High School, Ayetoro, exists, but there is no record of an International Primary School in Yewa North,” the local authority told the court, according to Mr. Buna Olaitan Isiak, executive director of the Human Global Resource Initiative.
The group further questioned Mr. Abiodun’s higher education claims. In 2015, he declared graduation from Obafemi Awolowo University in 1986 and Kennesaw State University in 1989.
Subsequent inquiries showed he never graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University. By 2019, he revised his claim, stating he only held a West African Senior School Certificate (WASC) obtained in 1978.
The suit also accuses Mr. Abiodun of perjury for failing to disclose a 1986 arrest in Miami-Dade, Florida, for credit card fraud and forgery. Court documents show he was jailed as a repeat offender under number 860089436 but later had the record expunged.
“Our concern is whether these contradictions constitute false declarations in breach of the Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act,” Mr. Isiak told the court, citing the Supreme Court precedent SALEH VS ABAH & ORS (SC.144/2016).
Mr. Abiodun’s political future could be affected as he is reportedly eyeing a senatorial seat in Ogun East, potentially challenging Senator Gbenga Daniel.
Among the reliefs sought, the civil society group asked the court for “an order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from considering, accepting, or recognising Mr. Abiodun as a candidate of any registered political party for election into any office in Nigeria.”
The initiative is being handled pro bono by Yemi Oke of MJS Partners, a public-interest law firm advocating for transparency in public office.
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