THE All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate in the February 14 election, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, said anybody is free to drag him to court over the controversy surrounding his secondary school certificate.This came just as the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) explained why it resolved to support his candidacy for the election.
The APC presidential candidate stated this while fielding questions from newsmen, after a visit to him by the PDM delegation, led by its national chairman, Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim.
Buhari, reacting to reports that he had been taken to court over the controversy surrounding his Secondary School certificate, maintained that “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 Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“INEC said it has got all the necessary documents, so, anybody who has any different view should go to court. I think they have gone to court, so let them remain there,” he stated.
Earlier, the PDM national chairman had announced the unanimous decision of the party’s National Executive Committee for its members and supporters to vote for Buhari on February 14.
According to him, “of the available presidential candidates, two clearly stood out, but it is the opinion of NEC that the incumbent, who has been at the helm of affairs of the nation in the past six years, had failed.
“NEC believes it is time for Nigerians to, therefore, give Buhari a chance,” he stated.
Responding, Buhari thanked the party for endorsing him, saying that all the opposition parties must form formidable platform to defeat the ruling PDP, promising that he would positively turn around the economy of the country if elected.
Activists file criminal complaint against him
ACTIVISTS, on Tuesday, filed a direct criminal complaint before an Abuja magistrates’ court to prosecute the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari.
They filed the complaint against Buhari for allegedly giving false evidence to a public officer, contrary to Section 157 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 158 of the same code.
The complainants, Shield Jones Ufot, Jimmy David, Ogueri Enwerem and Tochukwu Okorie, brought the direct criminal complaint pursuant to sections 143(d) and 152 of the criminal procedure code.
The criminal complaint, filed on behalf of the complainants by their counsel, Ezekiel Ugochukwu, said APC and its presidential candidate, Buhari, on December 18, filled and submitted INEC form C.F 001 to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), wherein Buhari gave his qualification to contest for the office of the president as West African School Certificate (WASC), which he claimed to have obtained in 1961.
“That General Muhammadu Buhari, with intent to mislead a public officer as to compliance with the provisions of Section 31 of the Electoral Act, 2010, deposed to various affidavits in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, wherein he stated that he attended Katsina Provincial Secondary School, Katsina State and obtained a West African School Certificate and the certificates he claimed to have obtained are with the Nigerian Army.
“That the Nigerian Army, in whose custody Buhari and the APC claim the certificates are, denied being in possession of the school certificates. That General Buhari never sat for the West African Examination Council examination in 1961 as he claimed,” they averred.
The complainant added further that in the entire records of the school and West African Examination Council, there appeared no name of the said Muhammadu Buhari.
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