The Taraba Patriotic Front, a civil society group advocating for good governance and transparency in Taraba State has called on the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress and Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to properly scrutinize, documents being submitted by a former Deputy Governor of the state, Abubakar Sani Danladi to contest for Taraba North Senatorial District in the 2023 elections.
In a statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Coordinator of the Taraba Patriotic Front, Wayas Benjamin said the former deputy governor should be disqualified from running if the ruling party must record success in the general elections in the state, warning that he has been parading forged documents.
“I strongly believe that disqualifying Abubakar Sani Danladi from contesting the election is in the best interest of not only the APC, but Taraba State, because he has been in and out of court several times on issues of dishonesty, false declaration and lying on oath as relates to the information contained in the affidavit supporting his personal particulars submitted to INEC,” Benjamin said.
According to him, Danladi was petitioned in court in 2007 and 2018 when he contested as deputy governor to late Danbaba Suntai and when he was presented by the APC governorship candidate over issues bordering on his educational qualification.
He also cited how the APC lost out in presenting a governorship candidate in March 2019 because of a Supreme Court verdict that barred Danladi from running for the post due to age falsification.
“The suit borders around dishonesty, false declaration and lying on oath as relates to the information contained in the affidavit supporting the personal particulars submitted to INEC by Abubakar Sani Danladi,” he said.
He alleged that Danladi has no evidence that he is educated up to school certificate level or its equivalent. “This is founded on several premises. Firstly, there is no record of any candidate with the name Abubakar Sani Danladi at Bachama Primary school in 1979/84, where Abubakar Sani claims he obtained his First Leaving School certificate,” he said.
“The only candidate with the name Sani in that school in that year was one Sani Babu who could read and write as of 23rd December 1991 when he sought to change his name to Abubakar Sani Danladi. Interestingly, on 17th February 2004, another Abubakar Sani Danladi who cannot read and write made a declaration attempting to lay claim to the primary school certificate of Sani Babu.”
“This fact is evidenced by a Sworn Declaration Affidavit, declared to by Abubakar Sani Danladi, wherein the content of the Affidavit had to be read over to him by an interpreter who also counter signed the Affidavit, dated 17th February 2004.”
“It can be said that the Abubakar Sani Danladi who could not read and write English language in 2004 is not the same person who owns a WAEC certificate which would imply that he could read and write English language as far back as June 2001 when the WAEC examination took place.”
“Chairman may wish to note that Abubakar Sani Danladi submitted an Affidavit of change of name, which he purportedly deposed to sometime in December 1991. The Affidavit states that Sani Babu changed his name to Abubakar Sani Danladi.”
“It is instructive to note that the APC Guidelines for Nomination clearly requires that when a candidate submits an Affidavit for change of name, the Affidavit must be accompanied with a Newspaper Publication of the change of name and a Deed Poll, neither of which Abubakar Sani Danladi submitted in support of his Affidavit of change of name.
“Records of Proceedings from the Court of Appeal where all the above allegations against Abubakar Sani Danladi were made contains all the evidence of the documents tendered in support of the allegations. The Records are in 2 volumes compiled by the Registry of the Court of Appeal. Copies of the CTC of the 2 volumes are submitted to the National Legal Adviser of the APC and marked EXH. 1, for ease of reference.”
The Taraba Patriotic Front Coordinator argued that the APC may be disqualified from nominating a candidate for the seat of Taraba North Senatorial district if Danladi is not stopped now, noting that the integrity of the party built over many years of diligence and commitment may be smeared with a fine of N10 Million.
As a consequence, he warned that Taraba North will have been robbed of the opportunity of electing a preferred candidate from our great party.
