Jonathan, Fayose refute certificate scandal report

FORMER president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday, said he had no certificate scandal.

This was as the Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, also faulted a report associating him with any form of certificate scandal.

The former president, in a statement by his media aide, Ikechukwu Eze, said contrary to a report in a national daily, the former president was not one of the prominent Nigerians with certificate scandals.

“Our attention has been drawn to a story on Sunday, March 26, where former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, was mentioned as one of the ‘prominent Nigerians with certificate scandals.

“We really don’t know where this is coming from, but we wish to remain unambiguous in our assertion that this is obvious falsehood, since the former president has never been linked to any doubt, scandal or controversy concerning his academic qualifications.

“We are not aware of any probe, allegation or litigation relating to his very well known academic qualifications. For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to restate that former President Jonathan’s educational records can easily be traced to St Michael’s Primary School, Oloibiri and Mater Dei High School, lmiringi, where he obtained his first school     leaving certificate (FSLC) and General Certificate of Education (GCE) ‘Ordinary Level’ respectively, as well as the University of Port Harcourt, where he received his Bachelor of Science, Masters and Doctorate degrees.

“Luckily, many of former President Jonathan’s classmates from primary school through the university are still alive    and are traceable.

“It is, therefore, obvious that there is no justification for this abstruse association, as there is nothing linking the former president to the story.

“Again, we advise media organisations to always cross-check their facts, in order to avoid falling for the convenient choice of publishing false information,” the statement read.

Fayose, in a letter by the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Owoseni Ajayi, said mentioning the governor’s name in the story with the headline: “Prominent Nigerians with certificate scandals,” was a poor attempt to rewrite history, stand truth on its head and build an edifice upon nothing.

The state Attorney-General said the orchestrated issue of the educational qualification of Mr Fayose was laid to rest over a decade ago in the case of AD v Fayose (CA/IL/EP/GOV/1/2004), wherein the Court of Appeal dismissed every allegation or insinuation of irregularity in his educational qualifications.

“Suffice it to say that even at that time, the contention was whether ‘Oluwayose’ was the same person as ‘Fayose’ and the Appeal Court found that ‘Peter Ayodele Oluwayose’ was one and same person as ‘Peter Ayodele Fayose.’

“It was a mere change of name, which followed the stipulated legal processes and procedures but which mischief-makers tried to distort and capitalise upon for selfish political reasons,” Ajayi wrote in the letter.

“To set the records straight, we emphatically state that His Excellency, Peter Ayodele Fayose, is not in any way involved or associated or connected with any form of ‘certificate scandals’ as the public is being made to believe.

“At no time was the educational attainment of His Excellency called to question. The resort to associating Dr Peter Ayodele Fayose with ‘certificate scandals’ is only a last resort by desperate politicians who are threatened by the rising profile and towering political stature of Dr Peter Ayodele Fayose,” it added.