PDP to Buhari: present your certificate to INEC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to show proof of his vaunted integrity by presenting his academic documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and put to an end his certificate saga.

The main opposition party also urged President Buhari to fulfil his obligation like other presidential candidates, by presenting his certificate, if he has any, instead of bugging the commission with affidavits.

A statement yesterday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, accused the President of seeking ways to short-circuit the system, instead of complying with set rules.

The party said while its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has submitted his educational and other relevant documents to INEC, President Buhari has continued to insist that his secondary school certificate was with the military authorities.

The statement said: “Indeed, a situation where President Buhari has been dodging the certificate issue raises huge questions of integrity, which demands that he makes available his credentials, or apologise to Nigerians, if he has none, so that the nation can move ahead.

“President Buhari knows by now that Nigerians are no longer interested in his claims in an affidavit wherein he stated:  ”I am the above-named person and the deponent of this affidavit herein. All my academic qualification documents as filled in my Presidential form, APC/001/2015 are currently with the Secretary of the Military Board as of the time of this affidavit”.

The PDP maintained that integrity strictly demands that President Buhari, particularly as the Commander-in-Chief write to the military authorities directing them to forward his claimed credentials to INEC, as requisite evidence of compliance with a key requirement for election into the Office of the President, under Section 131 (d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).