Kolawole Johnson, who is the Head of Research at the Act for Positive Transformation Initiative (APTI), has confirmed that the signatures of the ailing Governor Akeredolu were indeed forged. He said this during an interview with Arise TV on Thursday.
Johnson explained the meticulous process they undertook to uncover the forgery.
“If you want to do a thorough job, you don’t start with the noise-making, so you go underground. You do as much work as you can, not just to dig out documents, not just to harvest document but to establish a framework that will ensure the continuous access to the documents,” he said.
Kolawole emphasised the responsibility that comes with the privilege of access to such information, stating, “Again, you understand the fact that the privilege of access also comes with its own responsibility, information management”.
Kolawole revealed that the forgery was not merely an allegation anymore.
“They forged the governor’s signatures; it’s no longer an allegation,” he declared.
According to him, the investigation began in October, and by November, they had established contacts with friends across borders to verify the documents.
“The dissimilarities were so obvious at first, unfortunately they weren’t even so good at the beginning, it was so worse but later it got better, especially in November,” Johnson explained.
The documents that were obviously forged in September and October were set aside while they focused on the ones from November. These were sent across for verification and were confirmed to be forged.
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Johnson also said that, upon returning to Nigeria, they conducted further underground work and had the forgeries confirmed again.
Kolawole stressed that this was not a simple process of spotting the difference but involved machine verification.
He concluded, “And I have all of the charts.”
This revelation has sent shockwaves through the political landscape of Ondo and raises serious questions about the integrity of the administration.