Fresh moves to stop the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, from taking part in next month’s presidential election was launched on Monday with a suit filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking to stop him from running.
The plaintiff, Chike Okafor, in an originating summons asked the court to restrain Buhari from participating in the presidential election pending the resolution of the controversy over his secondary school certificate.
Joined as defendants in the suit are Buhari, APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, in a swift reaction to the pending suit and others that might be filed to challenge Buhari’s eligibility to run, the APC said it was ready for the legal battle.
The plaintiff is asking the court to determine whether the information given by Buhari in the prescribed forms and submitted to INEC for the 2015 presidential election does not contain falsehood.
“If yes, whether Buhari should not be disqualified from participating”, the plaintiff said.
The plaintiff premised his suit on Section 131 of the 1999 Constitution, which prescribes a minimum qualification for nomination to participate in presidential election and Section 31 of the Electoral Act that stipulates that all presidential candidates should depose to an affidavit in proof of compliance with constitutional requirements to be president.
The plaintiff is also contending that Buhari failed to prove that he has the minimum educational qualification to run for presidential election.
He averred that Buhari’s affidavit that he possesses the West African School Certificate (WASC) is false, as not only did he not attach it to his nomination form, as compulsorily required, but his claim that the certificates are in the custody of the military has been denied by the Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Olajide Laleye.
The plaintiff however submitted that he had approached the court based on Section 31(5) of the Electoral Act that allows a person that has reasonable grounds to believe that false information has been given by a candidate in his affidavit or document submitted to INEC, in support of his nomination form, to approach the court for the candidate to be disqualified.
Also, a group of lawyers under the aegis of Coalition of Concerned Lawyers of Nigeria have threatened to approach the court to challenge Buhari’s certificate.
The group had earlier on Sunday called on the Inspector General of Police to investigate the alleged perjury and the presentation of forged school certificate by Buhari.
The group’s leader, Amaechi Nwaiwu (SAN), said the Cambridge University result sheet attached to the school result released by Government College, Katsina has an alteration on the Mathematics column, which suggests an attempt at concealment.
Amaechi stated that the coalition would have approached the court to challenge the certificate but for the strike embarked upon by judiciary workers, which was, however, called off on Sunday. The coalition added that the results sheet which was attributed to the Cam-bridge University examination body and released by Buhari’s former school was a super imposition of one document on another.
“The column lines on the part where names are printed do not align with the ones on the blank columns while there is an introduction of extraneous lines on some other columns. The document which was purported to have been made in the 60s contains computer prints on one section while the other section was handwritten, the coalition,” stated.
According to the coalition, Section 131 of the constitution provides for qualification for election as president and Nigerians have the right to ensure that persons contesting to rule them are qualified.
“Where there is an allegation of forgery, the Nigerian Police has the powers on a complaint to investigate, interrogate and prosecute any person found to have committed forgery of a document or committed perjury.
“The Nigeria Police under Section 21 of the Constitution and the Police Act has the powers and duty to investigate and prosecute such offences. We call on the Inspector General of Police to investigate, interrogate and prosecute any person upon a complaint found to have committed perjury or forgery of school certificate”, Amaechi stated.
The coalition however stated that since Buhari had relied on the school certificate, he was bound to produce not only a statement of result, but the certificate.
But APC said it was not bothered by any legal challenge to the eligibility of its presidential candidate to contest the presidential election.
Its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, while reacting to Okafor’s suit, accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, of masterminding the legal challenge to Buhari’s eligibility.
He stated that PDP and Jonathan were doing everything possible to make sure that the elections were postponed. “We have not been served and when we are served, we respond to it.
The PDP and President Jonathan have been doing everything possible to make sure the elections were postponed. We are not afraid of the court and any suit. We will meet them in court.”
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