GOVERNOR Lucky Aiyedatiwa, yesterday, became the first aspirant to be cleared by the All Progressives Congress screening committee ahead of the April 20 governorship primary.
The embattled governor has been embroiled in an alleged academic certificate forgery that has threatened his chances of clinching the party ticket in the past few weeks.
A legal practitioner, Oladotun Hassan, had petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun and the Police Service Commission over an alleged move by a top-ranking officer to tamper with the report of an ongoing probe into the academic credential of the governor; an allegation that the legal firm of Aiyedatiwa has since refuted.
Similarly, another Ondo governorship aspirant, Gbenga Edema, on Monday pleaded with the APC National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje and the National Working Committee to probe the controversy surrounding the authenticity of the governor’s certificate.
Edema, who claimed he was not deliberately petitioning the APC out of envy, warned that if the party fails to duly vet the credentials before clearing the governor, they may likely witness a repeat of the drama that led to the disqualification of Bayelsa APC governorship candidate, David Lyon, who was sent packing by the Supreme Court for a similar offence after winning the poll.
But an excited Aiyedatiwa told journalists at the national secretariat of the APC after he was cleared by the screening committee on Friday that the matter has been laid to rest.
He said, “Screening is one of the processes 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.
