As the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal kicked off few months ago, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sent a team of lawyers and other party agents to the University of Cambridge to confirm the authenticity of the West African School Certificate (WASC) of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The opposition party did not only send a delegation but also made a request seeking potential evidence, citing doubts about the authenticity of the President’s WASC results.
A source close to the PDP disclosed that the Party representatives were stunned when their frantic efforts within and outside Nigeria led only to a finding that the President did indeed write the WASC Cambridge examination, passed and passed with six (6) credits.
The source said apart from the PDP and its associates, some media houses also requested Cambridge to provide them with a confirmation of the President’s certificate.
“Cambridge Assessment International Education issued the Certifying Statement that indeed President Buhari sat for his examinations in 1961 when it received a request from the President to do so.”
This revelation is coming amid the circulation on Friday of a pre-2015 election video, slanted to give the impression that the President’s certificate is still a contentious issue.
In a press statement on Friday by Oladele Peter, the Secretary of Initiative to Save Democracy (ISD), the group said it is sub judice for the opposition party to continue this futile attempts at preempting the judgment of the Presidential Election Tribunal.
“The desperation of the PDP is frightening, very frightening to say the least. They will stop at nothing and I expect Nigerians to be aware of their antics by now. They have peddled all kind of falsehood against the President especially the claim that he does not have a certificate but have always failed.”
He noted that the first attempt to ridicule the President was in 2014 before the 2015 elections, stressing that, if they have any evidence contrary to what has been presented in court and what they themselves discovered during their surreptitious investigations and the evidence sourced from reputable Cambridge University and tendered in open court, they should present it.
“The PDP is free to present its counter-evidence if there is any but they know that there is no such evidence. They are only playing on the emotions of Nigerians by peddling fake news; a 2015 video deliberately slanted. It is time Nigerians become more aware of this,” he said.
Mr Peter said it is another signal of desperation that the opposition party has even gone to the extent of populating an old video in which the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed was deliberately taken out of context.
“This is a very old video, for those of us who watch Channels TV we were stunned to see the video making the rounds, it is old and ridiculous. If you watch the video, you will find that Mr. Mohammed never said they should pardon the President, instead he said if someone does not find his or her certificate after 53 years they could be pardoned.
According to him, “it is unbelievable how the opposition party and its backers continue to push a media campaign hoping to confuse everybody, yet in the court of law, their case was clearly shown to be hopeless and baseless.”
Besides the Cambridge University credentials, the President’s lawyer, Wole Olanipekun also presented in court a class photograph of the President and his classmates including the former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Umaru Abdullahi and Late Shehu Musa ‘YarAdua.
The Cambridge University Certifying Statement was obtained personally by the President’s Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari.
While Malam Suleman Mai Adua, Buhari’s classmate in Katsina Provincial Secondary School presented to the court the group photograph of the school’s 1961 set.
