Former Chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Finance, Hon. Adeniyi Fabikun, has said his colleagues thoroughly investigated the certificate forgery allegations levelled against the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, when he was governor of the state.
He also described as false, claims in some quarters that they were bribed to clear Tinubu and exonerate him of any wrong doing, after considering the report of a panel which probed the former governor.
Tinubu is currently being accused of certificate forgery despite the fact that the state parliament had said he was not guilty of the allegation after it investigated the matter.
Fabikun, in an exclusive interview with THISDAY, said Tinubu was given a clean bill of health after a thorough scrutiny of documents he presented.
He also said there was no evidence before the lawmakers then that Tinubu owned the Alpha Beta Company, which monopolised the collection of taxes for the state government.
Fabikun told THISDAY that contrary to insinuations, nobody compelled the state assembly to probe the Tinubu’s certificate forgery allegations.
He said: “We were not compelled by anybody to probe the governor. Nobody coerced us to do so. As a matter of fact, there was no formal petition before the legislature on the matter until we took it upon ourselves when the issue was being discussed on the pages of newspapers.
“A member, during plenary, drew the attention of the then Speaker to the issue and there was a resolution that the matter must be looked into, dispassionately.
“A committee was subsequently set up to look at the whole issue. The panel met, did a thorough job and after some weeks, submitted its report which was considered at the Committee of the Whole House.
“Having painstakingly considered the report based on the steps taken by the panel to arrive at the conclusion, the Assembly gave the former governor, a clean bill of health and he was exonerated of any wrong doing.”
Fabikun insisted that Tinubu actually submitted the certificates he obtained from the schools he attended and that the lawmakers were convinced that the documents were not forged.
He said: “It will be foolhardy for anybody to think or insinuate that Asiwaju Tinubu did not go to school. Whoever is saying that, knows nothing about the APC candidate.
“I can categorically confirm that the committee did a thorough job based on the report it submitted and considered by the House.
” I saw all the certificates he presented. He even had a Second Class Upper degree certificate at the Chicago State University. I saw the photocopy of the certificate. He read Bsc. Accounting.
“Nobody teleguided the committee. I can confirm to you that we were not coerced. Even after the investigation, some people were insinuating that we had been bribed but there was nothing like that.”
The former lawmaker who is also a practicing tax consultant, described as untrue, reports that the House of Assembly approved Alpha Beta Company as the sole tax consultant for the state government.
Fabikun said: “I am not aware that there was such request for approval from the executive.
“I was the Chairman of the Finance Committee then and nothing like that came to my table.
“The Lagos State House of Assembly did not approve any tax consultant to the state government because we were not meant to carry out the functions of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).”
Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
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