SaharaReporters’ latest investigations show that the duo, both members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from constituencies in Ilaje, were in possession of fake documentation from the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, meant to certify the validity of their elections to office.
More details continue to emerge about the two Ondo State House of Assembly contestants, Abayomi Akinruntan and Coker Malachi, who might be charged with forgery, fraud for falsification of public documents, and impersonation.
Mr. Akinruntan and Mr. Malachi had been parading themselves as duly sworn in members representing Ilaje constituencies in the Ondo State House of Assembly.
SaharaReporters’ latest investigations show that the duo, both members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from constituencies in Ilaje, were in possession of fake documentation from the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, meant to certify the validity of their elections to office.
But INEC in Ondo State denied issuing the documents, called Certificates of Return, to the two PDP members parading themselves as lawmakers of the Assembly.
Segun Agbaje, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ondo State, said the election was inconclusive because the poll was marred with irregularities while the returning officer who oversees the election was “forced” to announced the results under duress.
The forged Certificates of Return were purportedly received by the Ondo State House of Assembly clerk, Bode Adeyelu, who allowed the two to be sworn in alongside their colleagues on June 1, 2015 despite being in full knowledge that the duo did not meet the constitutional provision.
Our correspondent gathered from House administrative staff on Friday evening that parliamentary rules require each member-elect to submit a copy of his or her Certificate of Return to the Clerk of the House before being sworn in.
“For [Mr. Akinrutan and Mr. Malachi] to have been sworn in at the hallow chamber of the Assembly alongside the remaining 24 members-elect, the clerk, Mr. Bode Adeyelu, must have received a Certificate of Return from them,” the staff told SaharaReporters.
SaharaReporters obtained a letter from the Commission dated June 5 and signed by its Electoral Management Head Abiodun M.I in which it denied issuing Mr. Akinrutan and Mr. Malachi the official documents. The letter was in response to an inquiry made by Akure-based lawyer and activist Titiloye Charles, who had queried the commission on the matter.
On the 13th of April, 2015, INEC in Ondo State declared that the House of Assembly elections in Ilaje constituencies I and II were inconclusive.
On April 21, the commission issued a press statement personally signed by the REC, Mr. Agbaje, reaffirming that the elections of the two PDP candidates’s elections were inconclusive.
In the statement obtained by SaharaReporters, the commission said it decided to uphold the April 13 decision of the returning officer, who was forced to declare the election results on April 11 while under duress by thugs.
On May 5, only twenty-four members-elect of the Assembly were given a Certificate of Return by INEC at its Algbaka headquarters office in Akure, leaving out both Mr. Akinrutan and Mr. Malachi.
Political pundits in the state have continued to point fingers at INEC and Mr. Adeyelu, asking where the two suspects must have received the Certificate of Return they presented before being swornin.
Already, sources have told Saharareporters that both Mr. Coker and Mr. Akinruntan have begun sending death threats to political adversaries in Ondo State, especially in Okitipupa and Igbokoda, for exposing the duo’s criminal acts of forgery.
A document exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters shows that both Mr. Akinruntan and Mr. Malachi even participated in the first and second sessions of proceedings at the Assembly before it went on a two-month recess. Mr. Malachi specifically actively participated in the election of the Assembly’s principal officers during its inaugural session.
Their offence, if properly investigated, violates Section 99 of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, which states: “Any person who sits or votes in a House of Assembly of a state knowing or having reasonable grounds for knowing that he is not entitled to do so shall be guilty of an offence and shall upon conviction be liable to a term of imprisonment…”