Keyamo Disagreed With Lagos Assembly On How Tinubu Was Cleared

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Keyamo Disagreed With Lagos Assembly On How Tinubu Was Cleared

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, in 1999, sued the Lagos State House of Assembly for clearing then Governor Bola Tinubu of allegations of certificate forgery and perjury.

According to The Africa Report, Keyamo, who is now the Spokesman for the Tinubu Campaign Organisation, had in the case with suit number ID/639M/99, dragged all 41 members of the House before Justice C.O Segun of the Lagos State High Court.

He had argued that the court should determine that only the chief judge could investigate Tinubu for certificate forgery.

Earlier, Gani Fawehinmi had accused Tinubu of forging his school certificates and sought an order from the court compelling the police to investigate him. The court ruled that because Tinubu enjoyed immunity at the time, only the Lagos State House of Assembly could investigate him.

The Assembly subsequently investigated him and within a week, he was cleared of all wrongdoing.

Dissatisfied with the resolution of the Lagos Assembly, Keyamo, who was a protégé of Fawehinmi sued all the members of the state legislature for clearing Tinubu.

In the origination motion, Keyamo noted that Tinubu had in the forms he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), stated that he attended Government College, Ibadan, from 1965 to 1968 and then proceeded to Richard Daley College, Chicago, Illinois, USA, from 1969 to 1971 before completing his studies at the Chicago State University in 1979 but that the certificates were lost.

Keyamo recalled that based on the allegations that the certificates were forged, the Lagos State House of Assembly set up a five-member panel that investigated Tinubu for only four days and could not have done a thorough job. 

He added that the Assembly lacked the constitutional power to investigate perjury and its findings were thus null and void.

He, therefore, sought four reliefs including a declaration by the court that “the final report submitted by the said five-man panel on Monday, September 27, 1999, to the defendants which in its totality cleared the Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu of allegations of forgery and perjury is null and void and of no effect.”

However, the court struck out the matter because it was not supported by an affidavit. Keyamo took the case to the Court of Appeal where he lost again and then to the Supreme Court where he was finally defeated.

In his response to The Africa Report, however, Keyamo said he only challenged the right of the Lagos Assembly to clear Tinubu and not the actual findings of the report.