By Henry Umoru

ABUJA — PRESIDENTIAL Campaign Organisation of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, faulted explanation by presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, retd, on the alleged certificate scam.

In a statement, yesterday, by the Director, Media and Publicity of PDP Presidential Candidate, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, the group noted that the fact that Buhari got away without the presentation of required credentials to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in 2003, 2007, and 2011 as required by law did not mean that in 2015, he would as well get away with it.

The statement read: “It is disingenuous for Buhari to say that he contested previous elections and that the issue of his qualifications did not arise. Had INEC not complied with the Electoral Act this year, which requires that they paste the academic credentials of all the presidential candidates, Nigerians would have remained ignorant of the fact that Buhari has probably been submitting affidavits for the past elections.

“The fact that he got away with it in 2003, 2007 and 2011 does not make it right. The minimum that Nigerians require from Buhari is the presentation of his secondary school certificate which enabled him to gain admission into the Nigerian Military College in 1962 and on which basis he became a commissioned officer of the Nigerian Army.

“This forms the fulcrum for the subsequent courses that he attended as he rose in the Army, including the U.S. War College. Failure to produce that school certificate implies that Buhari’s entire career in the Army was based on falsehood which cannot stand. This brings to question the admission system/policy into the Army in the early 1960’s.

“Were the rules bent for certain individuals in fulfilment of the quota system? Anyone that reads General Alabi Isama’s book which was published last year will know that this was the case.

“In fact, Alabi Isama went as far as to allege that some Nigerians were admitted into the military academy without the necessary qualifications like school certificate.

“We believe that Buhari was one of those people and this is why he is unable to produce his certificate.

“The truth is that he was never qualified for entry into the military academy in the first place and consequently he should never have become a commissioned officer let alone a man that rose to the rank of General.”