The criminal record of how Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun was jailed in 1986 for credit card fraud in Miami Dade Florida, USA.
The governor was said to have used a pseudo name (Shawn Michael Davids) with the aim of concealing his criminal identity.
The record revealed that Dapo Abiodun was jailed for committing criminal offences which bordered on credit card fraud, petty theft and check forgery.
He was arrested on November 7, 1986, for fighting and injuring a police officer in an attempt to resist arrest.
While being processed at the station, his fingerprint was run through the crime database and it was discovered that the Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun being processed for detention was the same as Shawn Michael Davids.
His criminal record and history were thus cemented and he was jailed.
According to documents obtained by SaharaReporters, Abiodun’s jail number was 8600B9436.
In 2015, while contesting for the Ogun East Senatorial seat against the late Buruji Kasamu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he applied for the redaction of his criminal records in Miami Dade, Florida.
This act of concealment meant he could lie on his Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) forms that he had no prior criminal records. A perjury offence that could have disqualified him from ever holding an appointive or elective office in Nigeria.
The redaction was granted in August 2015.
It was processed by Harvey Euvin, the Miami Dade City Clerk of Court.
A source who spoke to SaharaReporters said they had in 2021 engaged the services of a US criminal attorney (name withheld) through whom they made an application to get the unredacted document and the request was granted.
According to the unredacted documents, the “NOLLE PROSEQUI” indicated in the criminal records was a decision of the police and the District Attorney (DA) not to proceed to trial in exchange for Dapo’s cooperation to name his accomplices.
Abiodun’s criminal past has made him ineligible to hold public office in line with the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
A group under the auspices of Coalition of Ogun State Students (COSS) in a letter dated March 17, 2022, signed by its Convener, Comrade Oladimeji Uthman, has, however, given the governor two weeks to respond to the allegations against him as contained in the documents or face legal action.
