The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused the Presidency of bringing shame to the West African Examination Council, WAEC, over the issuance of an attestation certificate to President Muhammadu Buhari.
The president had been unable to present his WAEC certificate in compliance with the demand of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for anyone wishing to contest a political post as the president of Nigeria.
Buhari said the military collected the document when he joined the Nigerian Army.
But just last week, the president was presented with an attestation certificate by WAEC.
Reacting to the presentation of the document, PDP, in faulting the action, said it was amazing that the handlers of the president had “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.”
The condemnation of the action of WAEC as it relates to the case of the president’s attestation certificate is contained in a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan.
The statement reads in part:
“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 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 are 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.”
The party added: “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 Buhari Presidency should know that there is no way the truth can be suppressed. In fact, the current disagreement between the Presidency and WAEC over who initiated the attestation deal is also very revealing.
“Finally, while the PDP urges WAEC to redeem its image by handing over all its officials involved in the deal to the INTERPOL for investigation and prosecution, it also calls on the Nigeria Police to immediately invite Mr. President’s handlers for questioning over this huge national embarrassment.”
