The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for saying that his academic certificates were with the Nigerian Army.
Replying to Buhari’s response to their petition filed before the Election Petitions Tribunal, they said, if it was true that the certificates existed, Buhari as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces could order the Army to produce them.
Atiku said he attached his academic certificates to the Form CF001 he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In a joint petition filed on March 18, the former Vice-President and his party urged the tribunal to declare them the authentic winner of the February 23 presidential election, insisting that Buhari did not possess the educational qualifications he claimed to have in his INEC Form CF001.
They said in the reply filed on April 15 by their legal team, led by Dr Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), that having not been able to attach his academic certificates to INEC Form CF001, Buhari had falsely claimed that his certificates were in the custody of the Nigerian Army.
The joint reply filed by Atiku and the PDP read in part, “In further response to paragraph 381(iv) of the 2nd respondent’s reply, aver that the petitioners have no knowledge of any certificates or alleged qualifications issued to the 2nd respondent (Buhari), but contend that 2nd respondent falsely represented that his certificates are in the custody of the Nigerian Army when the 2nd respondent by his own admission is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
“In further response to paragraph 381(iv) of the 2nd respondent’s reply, the petitioners aver that the 2nd respondent as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria could easily order the Army Secretary to produce the certificates allegedly submitted if they actually exist.
“Contrary to paragraph 381(i-iv) of the 2nd respondent’s reply, the petitioners aver that the 2nd respondent does not possess the educational qualification he claimed to have in his INEC Form CF001 submitted to the 1st respondent (INEC) having not been attached as required.”
The petitioners also stated that “the purported training and courses”, which Buhari claimed placed him “head and shoulders above” Atiku regarding educational qualifications to contest the presidential election, “did not culminate in the issuance of any certificates he claimed in his INEC Form CF001”.
They also described Buhari’s claim of being head and shoulders above Atiku as “erroneous”.
Responding to Buhari’s allegation that Atiku didn’t have the statutory educational qualifications to contest the polls, the petitioners stated that the ex-VP attached his educational qualifications to his Form CF001 submitted to INEC.
Insisting that Atiku was qualified to contest election for the office, the petitioners stated that Buhari was unable to present any certificates because he did not possess any “as he falsely claimed”.
They stated, “In reply to paragraph 383 of the 2nd respondent’s reply, the petitioners aver that the 1st petitioner (Atiku) is eminently qualified to contest election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and had indeed attached evidence of his educational qualifications to his INEC Form CF001 submitted to the 1st respondent, unlike the 2nd respondent (Buhari) who did not attach evidence of the qualifications he claimed in his INEC Form CF001 because he does not possess them as he falsely claimed.”
INEC, Buhari, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) (Buhari’s party) are the 1st to the 3rd respondents to the petition.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the petition by the tribunal.
Meanwhile, a few weeks after the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) urged the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal to dismiss his suit challenging the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari as winner of the February 23 election, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has described the party as home to hypocrites who speak from both sides of the mouth.
The former Vice President flayed chieftains of the APC, arguing that rather than providing evidence to support Buhari’s supposed victory at the poll; they are busy chasing trivialities to hoodwink innocent Nigerians.
In a chat with newsmen, yesterday, spokesman of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Council, Kassim Afegbua tasked the APC and its leaders to take a trip down memory lane to recall how they once described Atiku in superlative terms only to turn around to question his nationality because he challenged the outcome of the elections.
He said: “The APC is just a bunch of very hypocritical characters who are chasing shadow instead of substance, in an election they massively rigged to profit themselves. Rather than present their defence, they are busy running from pillar to post, diverting attention from the real issues concerning the election.
“At first, they said Atiku Abubakar was not a Nigerian. Again, they said we hacked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) server. Later when they heard INEC disowned hacking, they now said no results existed in the server.
“They have been vacillating from one ridiculous theme to another, without addressing the critical issues of electoral fraud in defence of their dubious victory.”
He continued: “When Atiku Abubakar was donating money to them in the APC, they decorated him with golden ornaments; when he was providing logistics, they were all swarming around him, calling him the great Waziri.
“In fact, you need to go back and read all the eloquent tributes that were poured on him as a great Nigerian, but as soon as he opted to confront the APC in the 2019 elections, they started using the same mouths to denigrate him.
“Those who preached integrity suddenly joined the hypocritical chorus, sheer double standards and a character profiling that exposes the dubiety of those APC chieftains.
“Suddenly they remembered that Atiku is no longer a Nigerian, a former Vice President at that, a business tycoon whose productivity is not in doubt; a man who has impacted positively on thousands of Nigerians by way of employment.
“But we will not be distracted by their doublespeak. Nigerians know that Atiku Abubakar won the election and even the APC knows that in the hearts of Nigerians, they didn’t win the election, but we will shock them with further proofs at the tribunal.”
He took a swipe at the state of affairs in the nation, saying, “Just imagine the level of killings, kidnappings and banditry across the country. Even, the president’s home state of Katsina has been invaded by bandits and kidnappers.
“That has been the level of rot and insecurity, and you think Nigerians truly voted for such a decadent system under leadership that jets out of the country each time we are in serious trouble? No, it is not possible. Nigerians are very wise and very informed citizens. They could not have voted for such leadership that has impoverished them and plunged them into hunger and poverty, more hardship and deprivations in the past four years.”
Also speaking, Phrank Shaibu, also a spokesman to the former Vice President said those now questioning Atiku’s nationality are men lacking in honour who have no sense of shame.
He said: “Let me a place on record that Atiku’s case at the tribunal represents the moral imperative in a polity struggling to retrieve its conscience from the depravity of men who have no honour because they have no shame.
“We are proud to stand beside the good people of Nigeria in their struggle to assert the legitimacy of their mandate and the dignity of their votes.
“Atiku has used facts to prove that he won the election while the APC and Buhari are shouting that Atiku is not a Nigerian.
“One would have thought that the APC and it’s a candidate will be releasing new and or powerful evidence, to prove at the ongoing election petition tribunal that they clearly won the election without rigging.
“We are encouraged by the presence of the several fearless men and women of the bench in our present-day judiciary. We know that, sooner than later, those honourable and noble dispensers of justice in our present-day judiciary shall deliver a judgment that will be untainted by lucre and uncowed by the threat of immoral power.”