2023 Elections: Forgery of Particulars? Stakeholder Drags Zamfara PDP Guber Candidate Dauda Lawal to Court
- The Zamfara PDP gubernatorial candidate, Dauda Lawal, has been accused of altering some pieces of information in the documents he submitted to INEC
- A group known as the Zamfara Youth Progressive Union claimed that Lawal has four names in various certificates submitted to the commission
- The union also alleged that the PDP candidate provided 1964 and 1965 as his date of birth at different times
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Zamfara - The Zamfara Youth Progressive Union, a socio-political group in the state, has raised some suspicions concerning the authenticity of the document submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dauda Lawal.
According to a statement made available to Legit.ng, the group said it appears that more questions need to be cleared by Lawal in the forthcoming 2023 election over documents he submitted to the commission as statements of his qualifications to contest for office.
Source: Twitter
The union is insisting that the details contained in those documents are not only contradictory in nature but very confusing hence there is no certainty in both Lawal's original name and the year he was born, among many other complex adoptions that need to be cleared.
It stated that many people know the PDP gubernatorial candidate to be Dauda Lawal Dare, but in the documents he submitted to INEC, there are some signs of alterations which raised serious dust about the credibility of the documents he filed before the electoral umpire as his requisite qualifications.
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Four different names for one person
In the statement, the youth organisation claimed that Lawal has different names reflected in his certificates.
Source: UGC
It claimed:
"From the documents available before us which are certified by the INEC, the PDP gubernatorial candidate may be bearing four names: his Primary School Leaving certificate which was obtained from Primary School Guga in the present-day Katsina state was bearing Dauda Ado only.
"His secondary school certificate which was obtained from Government Secondary School Kachia in 1982 was on the other hand bearing the name ADO DAUDA LAWAL.
"His University first degree obtained on the 19th of September 1988, the NYSC discharge certificate obtained on the 17th of September 1989 as well as the Master's Degree certificate obtained on the 11th of January 1992 all from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria are uniformly bearing the name DAUDA LAWAL only.
"In the affidavit he swore to at the High Court of Justice of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja on the 20th April 2022 the name used by the PDP gubernatorial candidate is DAUDA LAWAL DARE while the one sworn to at the Supreme Court of Nigeria on the 12th Day of September 2018 via age declaration when he contested the APC gubernatorial position in 2019 was bearing DAUDA MUHAMMED LAWAL."
Alleged alterations in date of birth, others
Speaking further, the body, through one of its leaders, Adamu Abdullahi, alleged that Lawal provided both 1965 and 1964 as his years of birth at different times.
The group said:
"Regarding his date of birth, the declaration of age he made at the Supreme Court of Nigeria Complex Abuja on the 12th of September 2018, he declared that he was born on the 2nd of September 1965 at Gusau, Gusau local government area of Zamfara state while in his certificate of completion of primary school his date of birth was reading 1964 and that he was born at Guga village in present-day Katsina state, not Gusau as claimed in the affidavit sworn-in in 2018.
"Going through his years of primary school he stated that he undergoes his primary school studies from 1972-1977 instead of 1978 because logically, before the introduction of the 6-3-3-4 system of education, pupils usually spent seven (7) years at the primary school as against six years as claimed by the gubernatorial candidate."
The organisation also said there are signs of alterations made to enclose the years as contained in the certificate Lawal submitted to INEC.
The group's prayers to the court
It is asking the state's high court for clarification on the followings:
- What is the accurate name of the PDP gubernatorial candidate of Zamfara?
- What is the actual year of birth of Lawal?
- Where exactly was he born?
The group also asked:
"We also want the court to verify for the people of Zamfara whether an enrollee of 1972 can finish his primary without graduating from class seven because from the facts before the introduction 6-3-3-4 system of education pupils graduated from primary schools after attaining a class of seven, not six as claimed by the PDP gubernatorial candidate of Zamfara?"
"Can someone who has made false declarations of statements related to his requirements for qualification to contest cannot be challenged by the citizens?
"By the virtue of the dozens of decided cases should Lawal not be disqualified from contesting if the suspicious allegations are established at the end of the litigation?"
Zamfara PDP crisis: Buhari, INEC, IGP get troubling message
Recall that the supporters of Hon. Ibrahim Shehu Bakauye Gusau, one of the governorship aspirants of the Zamfara PDP, had made an allegation against Abdulaziz Sani Lawal Dare, a brother to Dauda Lawal Dare, the candidate whose election was nullified by a court order.
In a petition against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari and the IGP Alkali Baba Usman, the leader of Gusau's supporters, Nasir Ahmed, claimed that Abdulaziz, a legal officer at INEC headquarters in Abuja, has been working with someone in the commission to favour his brother.
Ahmed, in the petition made available to Legit.ng, alleged that Abdulaziz is conniving and compromising the credibility, justice, and fairness enshrined in the electoral law and the Nigerian constitution while discharging his official responsibility at INEC's legal department in Abuja.
Source: Legit.ng
