A West African Examination Council official, Osidehinde
Adewunmi, on Wednesday, disowned the Cambridge University’s
Moderated International Examination credentials produced by
President Muhammadu Buhari and tendered as exhibits before the
Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja.
The two documents earlier admitted as Exhibits 19 and 21 were
Buhari’s statement of results and the broadsheet for the results of
the 18 candidates who sat for the examinations in 1961.
The Deputy Registrar, School Examinations in Nigeria, of WAEC,
who appeared before the tribunal on a subpoena, testified before
the five-man tribunal led by Justice Mohammed Garba, as Buhari’s
fourth defence witness on Wednesday.
He appeared in the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic
Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, challenging
Buhari’s victory at the February 23, 2019 poll.
Part of the grounds of the petition was that Buhari lacked the
educational qualification to contest the election.
When cross-examined by the counsel for the All Progressives
Congress, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Adewunmi said he, as a WAEC
official, certified one of the documents bearing the name of the
University of Cambridge Moderated Examination earlier tendered as
Exhibit marked R21.
The witness, who said he had been working with WAEC for about 30
years, told the tribunal that the examination was conducted by
Cambridge University in conjunction with WAEC.
He confirmed that 18 persons sat for the examinations in 1961,
adding that Buhari was listed as number two on the list of
candidates for the examination.
He confirmed that Buhari sat for eight subjects and had five
credits in the examination – Oral English, C5; History, A3;
Geography, C6; Hausa, C5; and Health Science, C6.
“He came out with aggregate of 32 and he was awarded Grade 2,”
he confirmed.
When asked, he confirmed that “whoever has this (the R21
exhibit) has secondary education”.
Under cross-examination by the petitioners’ lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu
(SAN), Adewunmi was asked if Exhibit R19 was a certificate, he
said, “I cannot say whether it is a certificate because my
signature is not on the certificate. It is not bearing my name or
the name of my organisation”.
Asked again, the witness said, “This document is bearing the
name of Cambridge University Assessment International
Education”.
Asked if the document was issued by WAEC, he said, “It is not a
document from the West Africa Examination Council”.
Asked about Exhibit R21, he said, “This is the foundation, the
primary foundation for issuance of a certificate.”
The witness was also asked if the document was a
certificate.
“This is not a certificate,” the witness answered.
When asked, he also said, “I have never worked with the
University of Cambridge”.
In his bid to point out out contradictions in the two documents,
the petitioners’ lawyers asked the witness to compare the number of
subjects listed against Buhari in them.
The witness confirmed that in R21, “The number of subjects
listed against the 2nd respondent (Buhari) is eight”, and in R19
“six subjects”.
He also confirmed that the first name on the two documents was
“Mohamed” and as against the President’s “Muhammad”.
He also confirmed that WAEC registrar, Dr. Iyi Uwadae, issued a
WAEC attestation certificate to Buhari on November 2, 2018.
He disagreed with the petitioners’ lawyer that issuance of an
attestation certificate was not limited to cases of loss or
misplacement
Subscribe ToNairalaw News!
Read more presidential-tribunal-drama-as-waec-deputy-registrar-disowns-buharis-cambridge-certificate/