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Atiku, PDP insist Buhari ‘incompetent’ to contest poll

By Bridget Chiedu Onochie, Abuja
16 August 2019   |   4:18 am
Ahead of the August 21 date for submission of final written addresses by parties to their petition, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party...

[FILES] Presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party Atiku Abubakar

Ahead of the August 21 date for submission of final written addresses by parties to their petition, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 23 election, Atiku Abubakar and his party yesterday maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari was not qualified to have contested the poll.

In the final written address filed before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, they held that Buhari should be disqualified.

The duo had filed complaints against the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

They insisted that they have proved all allegations contained in their petition against the conduct of the election by the electoral body.

In a 43-page final address filed on behalf of the petitioners by their lead counsel, Dr. Levy Uzoukwu (SAN), they claimed that they have established the fact that Buhari lacked the requisite academic qualification for the position of Nigeria’s president.

They noted that even Buhari’s witnesses admitted to that fact under cross-examination when they confessed that he does not possess a school certificate, being the basic requirement for contest to the office of the president.

The petitioners said: “We therefore submit that all the purported evidence led by the second respondent (Buhari) to prove that he attended a secondary school or a primary school or that he attended some courses, is irrelevant because he did not rely on any of those purported qualifications in exhibit P1, he relied on primary school certificate, WASC and officer cadet.

“Equally futile is his attempt to prove that he can speak and write in English language. That is all irrelevant to his inability to produce his primary school certificate, secondary school certificate or WASC and his officer cadet qualification, whatever that means. Officer cadet is not a qualification or certificate under the Constitution and Electoral Act, nor is it known to any law.”

On the Cambridge University certificate tendered by the president, the petitioners queried: “Why was it easier for Buhari to go all the way to Cambridge in the United Kingdom to obtain a bogus document that his own witnesses said was not a certificate when he could just driving down the street in Abuja to the Army Headquarters or place a phone call to the Secretary of the Military Board in Abuja to hurry over with his certificate or certificates.”

On the issue of rigging and non-compliance with the Electoral Act, the petitioners said with the evidence tendered and witnesses called, they have been able to show to the tribunal that Buhari’s election was invalid.

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