Group vows to drag sacked Kwara APC lawmakers to ICPC over alleged certificate forgery, impersonation

By Mumini AbdulKareem

A group, Kwara Agenda has vowed to drag the two lawmakers affected by
the recent court of appeal judgement that sacked the All Progressives
Congress (APC) House of Assembly member for Ilorin South, Hon Hassan
Azeez Oluwanilo to court.
The APC had substituted the initial winner of its House of Assembly
primary for the constituency, Alhaji Suleiman Abdulsalam with 28 years
old Oluwanilo who was sworn-in in June.
But the group in a statement issued in Ilorin and jointly signed by
its state Coordinator, Comrade Harroon Yakub Kannike, Secretary,
Muhammad Nurudeen and Publicity Secretary, Olusegun Olusola Adewara
respectively accused the two lawmakers of certificate forgery and
impersonation adding that they have concluded plans to drag them to
the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences
Commission (ICPC).
The statement reads; “Following the recent federal High Court and that
of the Court of Appeal judgements which pronounced one Hon Jimoh
Abdulraheem Agboola as the winner of March 9th general elections to
Ilorin South state Constituency and which also nullified the
candidatures of both  Hon Suleiman Shehu Abdulsalam and his alleged
imposture, one  Hassan Elewu Oluwanilo after it was discovered the
latter forged and manipulated academic credentials which were
submitted to INEC during verification exercise.
“On the basis of the above, we at Kwara Agenda, being a Non
Governmental Organisation with mission to defend the interest of Kwara
State and ensure sanity reigns in our polity, have taken it upon
ourselves to approach the Independent Corrupt Practices and other
Relates offences Commission (ICPC) in order to file a formal petition
against the two APC candidates and dismissed members of Kwara State
House of Assembly… for further criminal investigation.
“This is in pursuant to fundamental objectives of Kwara Agenda to
ensure corruption which has so much undermined our democratic
institutions, retards our economic development and contributes to
government instability is tackled head on and reduced to tolerable
limit in our society.
“We assure Kwarans that this matter is going to be followed to a
logical end and since the two court rulings had already established
forgery and impersonation crimes against the aforementioned, the ICPC
saddled with taken up this kind of crimes is going to conduct thorough
investigation to unravel any treacherous act and if culpable they both
face the court for trials.
“We at Kwara Agenda believe therefore that this step taken is going to
serve as deterrent to other aspiring for public offices to ensure they
conduct thorough self evaluation and ensure they meet all requirements
slated by the law before coming forward to present themselves for
public offices”, the statement added.
The group further called on “members of the public not to hesitate to
blow the whistle and report to its office at No 12, Ibrahim Taiwo
Road, Beside Defunct Societe General Bank, Ilorin whenever anyone at
any level is found wanting of similar criminal tendency in their
neighborhood.
The group appreciated the Kwara State Government under the leadership
of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq for allowing the law to take its
proper course.