The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress Gen Muhammadu Buhari(retd.) has broken silence over his certificate saga insisting that he actually sat for the West African School Certificate examination in 1961.
Buhari who disclosed this today at a press conference in Kano said, “I attended Provincial Secondary School, Kaduna, now Government College, Kaduna, and sat the University of Cambridge/WASCE in 1961, the year we graduated, alongside (now the late) Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (Chief of General Staff under Gen Olusegun Obasanjo as Head of State) and Justice Umar Abdullahi, a former President of Court of Appeal . My examination number is 8202220.”
The presidential candidate however described the hullabaloo over his credentials as diversionary antics by those intimidated by his growing popularity among Nigerian voters.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian Army had yesterday at a press conference said it is not in custody of the original certificates of Buhari.
The Director of Public Relations of the Army, Brig. Gen. Olajide Laleye, explained that the entry made for documentation by the APC candidate on its(Army) Form 199A, indicated that he wrote and passed the West African School Certificate in 1961.
Buhari had in an affidavit he deposed to at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on November 24, 2014 and submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission on December 18, 2014, said that his certificates were with the military.
“I am the above-named person and deponent to this affidavit therein. All my academic qualifications, documents as filled in my presidential form, President APC/001/2015, are currently with the Secretary, Military Board as of the time of presenting this affidavit. The affidavit is made in good faith and for record purposes,” he had written.
