Buhari’s Certificate Saga: Worst National Embarrassment -PDP …Set To Leverage On APC Crisis In Imo, Zamfara, Ogun

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday observed that public demonstrations that the Presidency may have procured a forged West African Examination Council (WAEC) Certificate Attestation and Confirmation for President Muhammadu Buhari is a huge smear on our nation’s integrity and the Office of the President.
In a statement issued by Kola Ologbondiyan, the National Publicity Secretary of the party in Abuja, the party lamented that the development has turned the nation into “a laughing stock in the West African sub-region and the entire global community, as our President is now being mentioned as a beneficiary of a duplicitous act.”
The PDP added: “Most appalling is that Mr President’s handlers have succeeded in dragging a reputable institution as WAEC into public disrepute and opprobrium, as Nigerians are quick to demonstrate marks of forgery in the attestation issued by the examination body.
“A check on the attestation clearly shows that it does not have the ‘Original Certificate Number,’ the key authentication feature in all genuine attestations by WAEC. Instead, a ‘non-applicable’ is entered, indicating that the beneficiary does not have a certificate to be attested to, thus rendering the said attestation unauthenticated, fake and of no effect.
“Also, the attestation is for West African Senior School Certificate, which President Buhari couldn’t have sat for, given that the Senior School Certificate Examination was established only in the late 1980s.
“Does it not smack of a high-level scam that the same WAEC, which, in 2015, confirmed that it does not have records of President Buhari’s certificate, now had to send officials to present Mr President with an attestation, that has no original certificate number?
“Moreover, by WAEC rules, attestations are only issued in the case of missing or destroyed certificate. Why then should the exam body issue an attestation to President Buhari, whose certificate, he claimed is with the military and not missing or destroyed?
“If not intended to circumvent the system and deceive Nigerians, why did President Buhari’s handlers chose to write to WAEC to issue an attestation when he, as the Commander-in-Chief, has the powers to direct the military to make available his credentials for all to see.
“What the unauthenticated attestation has shown is that Mr President does not have a WAEC certificate; we urge his handlers to humbly so admit and apologise to the nation, having exhausted all gimmicks to mislead Nigerians.”
The PDP stressed that the Buhari Presidency should know that there is no way the truth can be suppressed adding: “In fact, the current disagreement between the Presidency and WAEC over who initiated the attestation deal is also very revealing.”
The PDP, therefore, urged WAEC to redeem its image by handing over all its officials involved in the deal to the INTERPOL for investigation and prosecution.
It also called on the Nigeria Police to immediately invite Mr President’s handlers for questioning over this huge national embarrassment, declaring: “Enough is Enough!”
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will this week, deploy its Contact and Integration Committee to some states in the federation recently hit by crisis arising from party primaries.
The committee chaired by former Cross River state governor, Senator Liyel Imoke is set to meet with some disgruntled members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in Imo, Zamfara and Ogun states which governors are currently locked in a battle with the leadership of the party.
Although Governors Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara) and Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun) are not expected to defect to another party before the elections, there are indications that many aggrieved members in the affected states may jump ship to protest their alleged maltreatment in the primaries. Speaking with Vanguard yesterday, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan said apart from the mentioned states; the PDP will interface with “these people” across the federation before the elections.
Ologbondiyan added that the trouble in the ruling party is a fallout of the failure to practice internal democracy, noting that the National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP will provide accommodation for all Nigerians “desirous of taking this nation to the next level.”
He said: “Our Committee (Contact and Integration) is reaching out to these people and I can assure Nigerians that we will provide accommodation for all of them in our rebranded platform.
“APC has nothing to offer Nigerians and that has been made glaring with the controversial congresses and primaries they conducted. We want these people to come on board so that together, we will rescue Nigerians from the pain the APC has caused us since they assumed office in 2015.”
The party’s decision to reach out to the aggrieved members of the APC may not be unconnected with remarks made by Governor Okorocha recently to the effect that the ruling party may lose as much as five million votes to the opposition in the event of failure to resolve the crises rocking the party.
Also, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has received thousands of former members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who have now joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Saraki revealed this via his verified Twitter page on Sunday night.
“Today in Kwara, I was delighted to receive thousands of former APC members as they defected to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“As we move forward together, our great party will continue to work to provide more opportunities and development for our state and the entire nation,” he wrote.
Saraki himself dumped the ruling party for PDP in July this year.
The Senate President later contested the presidential primaries, where he lost out to former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar.