Certificate Saga: My documents with INEC – Buhari

CLICKSOR ADS ABUJA—Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari (Ret), yesterday, insisted that his academic certificates were submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which were duly acknowledged by the Legal Department of the commission, wondering why people were still making issues of it. Speaking in Abuja, when the Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, formally adopted him as its presidential candidate for the February poll, Buhari said: “Well I am not surprised. This is Nigeria. If people are serious about this issue, they ought to have listened to the Legal Adviser of INEC. “This is the first time, INEC by law has got those documents and they said they have got them. So, anybody who has any different view should go to court. I think they have gone to court. So, let them remain there.” An Abuja lawyer, Mr. Chike Okafor, had on Monday, in a suit before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, sought to disqualify Buhari from contesting the February 14 presidential election on account of false information given by the candidate in the affidavit he submitted to INEC, in support of his nomination form. Meanwhile, an Abuja Chief Magistrate’s Court, yesterday, was asked to okay the prosecution of General Buhari over allegations that he gave false evidence to a public officer. The plaintiffs in the case are four activists- Shield Jones Ufot, Jimmy David, Ogueri Enwerem and Tochukwu Okorie. In the suit brought pursuant to sections 143 (d) and 152 of the Criminal Procedure Code, they alleged that Buhari relied on a bogus certificate to depose to an affidavit before a competent court, contrary to Section 158 of the Penal Code Law.