https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/01/02/again-ngo-sues-buhari-over-educational-qualifications/

SEE FULL UNABRIDGED STORY BELOW

To most Nigerians, the issue of the WAEC certificate case of President Muhammadu Buhari is dead and buried after it generated heat during the 2015 General Elections in the famous case in which the President had to brief a team of thirteen (13) Senior Advocates of Nigeria and other top Lawyers to file an appeal against the decision of the Federal High Court which dismissed all the objections of President Muhammadu Buhari challenging the competence of that suit and the jurisdiction of the Court to hear it. That case ended when the Plaintiff discontinued and withdrew it. However, the Incorporated Trustees of the Civil Society Observatory for Constitutional and Legal Compliance (the Observatory) thinks otherwise. In an Originating Summons filed on the 6th day of December 2018 at the Federal High Court, Abuja, the Non-Governmental/Civil Society Organization has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of making false statements in his Affidavit in Support of Personal Particulars (INEC Form C.F. 001) which the President deposed to at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on the 8th day of October 2018 and submitted to INEC on the 18th day of October 2018. A perusal of the Court Processes obtained by Thisday shows a very chilling, devastating, specific and detailed legal case made by the Observatory against President Buhari and his co-defendants, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). The exhibits attached to the Originating Summons indicate that the Observatory had applied to INEC on the 29th day of October 2018 for the Affidavits in Support of Personal Particulars of six (6) of the candidates contesting for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the 2019 General Elections. Apart from the President, others whose Affidavits were sought for and obtained by the Plaintiffs are Professor Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), John Wilson Gbor of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) and Mr. Donald Duke of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Also exhibited to the Summons was the receipt for twelve thousand naira (N12, 000.00) paid to INEC for CTCs of the said Affidavits in Support of Personal Particulars. The Plaintiffs who attached the Affidavits in Support of Personal Particulars of all six candidates as exhibits to their Originating Summons, allege that whereas the other five candidates all attached copies of their various educational qualification documents as required by law, the President did not attach a single one and is the only one of all candidates for all the positions from House of Assembly to President, not to show proof of qualification: The President according to the Plaintiffs, did not even attach his First School Leaving Certificate (Primary School). The Plaintiffs in their affidavit drew the attention of the Court to their Exhibit CSO 4 which is the Affidavit in Support of Personal particulars of John Wilson Terwase Gbor, Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). According to the Plaintiffs, Mr. Gbor is a retired Major-General of the Nigerian Army just like the President. He retired from the Nigeria Army in 2004. Unlike the President, Major-General Gbor (Rtd.) attached all his educational qualification documents in his Affidavit in Support of Personal particulars submitted to INEC. These include Ph.D. Certificate from Indiana University in USA, Master of Arts Certificate from Indiana University, USA, Master of Science in Education Certificate from Indiana University, USA, Bachelor of Arts (History) from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate General Certificate of Education (GCE) sat at Government College, Keffi, West African Examinations Council Secondary School Certificate, Certificate of Primary Education (FSLC) of Benue State, Nigeria, among other documents. According to the Observatory, the President instead of adducing proof that he has the requisite constitutional educational qualifications, attached an affidavit deposed to by him four years ago on the 24th day of November 2014 wherein the President averred that “ALL MY ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS DOCUMENTS AS FILLED IN MY PRESIDENTAL FORM, PRESIDENT APC/001/2015 ARE CURRENTLY WITH THE SECRETARY, MILITARY BAORD AS OF THE TIME OF THIS AFFIDAVIT”. The Plaintiffs then argued that this was a FALSE STATEMENT on two grounds: FIRST because, according to them, there is no institution, organ, body, department or authority of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria called the “Military Board” as at the time of deposing to the affidavit in 2014 and as at October 2018 when the President submitted the affidavit to INEC and that there is equally no person or officer of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria known as and called the “Secretary to the Military Board”. At paragraph 19 of their affidavit in support of their Summons, the Plaintiffs aver that the only organs of the Nigerian Armed Forces existing in law and relevant to the issue are: Armed Forces Council; Nigerian Army Council; Nigerian Navy Board and Nigerian Air Council; that the President being a retired General of the Army, former Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and currently President and Commander-in-Chief should know this better than anyone. The Plaintiffs having urged the Court to examine one of the ten questions for determination posed by them in their Summons as to whether there was indeed a Military Board in Nigeria in 2014, urged the Court that in the event that they answer in the negative, the Court should further hold that the President has made a false statement, disqualify and vitiate his candidacy. The Plaintiffs argued that if the Court examines the affidavit deposed to by the President in November 2014 which he used probably as proof of his educational qualifications, the Court will find that the averment by the President to the effect that “ALL MY ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS DOCUMENTS AS FILLED IN MY PRESIDENTAL FORM, PRESIDENT APC/001/2015 ARE CURRENTLY WITH THE SECRETARY, MILITARY BAORD AS OF THE TIME OF THIS AFFIDAVIT” is entirely worthless and without merit. This according to the Observatory is because there is nothing like “PRESIDENTAL FORM, PRESIDENT APC/001/2015” known to INEC and relevant to the Affidavit in Support of Personal Particulars. According to the Plaintiffs, such a document (“Presidental Form, President APC/001/2015”) was not submitted to INEC for which reason it is not before the Court and so the averment goes to no issue and is moot. If that averment is found to be without merit and baseless, then, it simply means that the President has not shown proof that he possesses any educational qualification whatsoever. The Plaintiffs further argue that assuming even, that there is a “Military Board” and that as at November 2014, the President’s educational qualification documents were with such Board, that excuse will not suffice as an explanation four years later as the President needed to convince INEC of where his educational documents are as at the time of submitting his Affidavit in Support of Personal Particulars to them in October 2018. The Plaintiffs argue that the President has been in office as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for almost four years now and if indeed his documents were with the Army where he served, he would have retrieved it; that the fact that he has not and no good explanation for failure to do so has been given, is CONCLUSIVE evidence that the President never had certificates. The second ground on which the Plaintiffs in their Summons urged the Court to hold that the President made a false statement on Oath is based on the denial of the Nigeria Army who said the President never submitted any educational qualification documents to the Army when he joined and that there has never been any in their file. The Plaintiffs obtained and exhibited Certified True Copies from the National Library of the Newspaper Reports where the Nigeria Army called a Press conference to say that the President only joined the Army with a Written Recommendation from his Principal and not a WAEC certificate. The Plaintiffs in their Written Address in support of their Summons argue that the President is in breach of the clear, express and extant provisions of Section 31 (6) of the Electoral Act which provides that: “If the Court determines that any of the information contained in the affidavit or any document submitted by that candidate is false, the Court shall issue an order disqualifying the candidate from contesting the election”. The Plaintiffs argue that apart from being in breach of Section 31(6) of the Electoral Act, the President is also in breach of Section 131 (d) of the 1999 Constitution which requires that an aspirant to the Office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should have been “educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent”. The Plaintiffs argue that even if mere attendance of Secondary School (which was not even proved) or attendance of other courses could be deemed education up to school certificate level or its equivalent, the interpretation section of the Constitution, requires evidence of Primary School First School Leaving Certificate which the President never produced before other courses could be deemed equivalent. Indeed, the Plaintiffs point out that in his Affidavit in Support of Personal Particulars, the President claimed to have obtained his Primary School Certificate in 1952 while in his Curriculum Vitae attached to his said affidavit, the President claimed to have attended Elementary School, Daura and Mai Aduwa between 1948-1952 a period of FOUR years. The Plaintiffs then asked the Court to take Judicial Notice of the fact that Elementary or Primary School takes a minimum of six years before FSLC can be awarded and that it means the President either never attended or never completed six years of Elementary/Primary education which accounts for why he has no FSLC and thus unable to meet the requirements of Section 131 (d) of the 1999 Constitution. Investigation by Thisday reveals that the matter is being fearfully discussed in whispers in the Presidency and by the top officers of the APC who had assumed that the Certificate albatross had been rested forever. The case is fixed for hearing on February 4, 2018.

[img][/img]

rubbish. cant make any sense out of this jargon

Yesterday Mbaka endorsed Buhari. Today "Buhari fails to apoint ministers early because of empty Treasury _ Tunde Bakare". It seems Buhari campaign is beginning o renew its Subscription.
Meanwhile If someone that forged certificate still has Integrity, then we need to check the real meaning of Integrity.

hisexcellency34:
rubbish. cant make any sense out of this jargon

I believe the story is meant for people with sense; those without it will see it as "jargon"

This is what I've been waiting for...a well articulated litigation with evidence against the qualifications of the president.

Let's see how it goes.

hisexcellency34:
rubbish. cant make any sense out of this jargon

Your education is deficient.

The summary of the article is that Buhari has no certificate. He is a liar.

This is 2019 liberate yourself from zombism

hisexcellency34:
rubbish. cant make any sense out of this jargon

The OP will do well to properly format this story with appropriate paragraphs.

That said, what I keep seeing is[b] MILITARY BAORD[/b] instead of BOARD. Is that deliberate?

I can bet that the case will be so frustrated and won't be determined until after the elections.

LibertyRep:
The OP will do well to properly format this story with appropriate paragraph.

That said, what I keep seeing is[b] MILITARY BAORD[/b] instead of BOARD. Is that deliberate?

I can bet that the case will be so frustrated and won't be determined until after the elections.

"Presidental" Form and Military "Baord" is exactly how Buhari spelt those words in his affidavit

BigND:


"Presidental" Form and Military "Baord" is exactly how Buhari spelt those words in his affidavit

Lord! Most likely something is fishy.

I refuse to be govern by an illiterate

Ghen Ghen!