The All Progressive Congress (APC) has claimed that the document presented by the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to prove certificate forgery allegation against its candidate, Bola Tinubu was fraught with inconsistencies and high variation.
APC’s position was obtained from its final written address to the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) yesterday in Abuja.
On the allegation of falsification of Chicago State University certificate, the party said, by the provisions of Constitution of Nigeria, Tinubu, having been educated to secondary school level, is eminently qualified to contest the February 25 presidential election and occupy the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It said the issue of presenting a false certificate would only become an issue if it were presented to make the candidate scale the hurdle of educational qualification that he otherwise did not possess.
According to the APC, the bone of contention is the petitioners’ allegation that the Chicago State University Certificate so presented was “forged”, as there are some features such as date of birth, name, gender and state of origin on the face of the document showing that same does not belong to Tinubu, thereby making the provisions of Section 137(j) of the Constitution relevant in the consideration of the issue
The APC said all the documents tendered by the petitioners in their attempt to establish the allegation of forgery of the certificates Tinubu presented to INEC are inadmissible in law.
“For whatever the documents are worth, we submit that same do not establish that the certificate presented to the 1st respondent by the 2nd respondent in aid of his qualification to contest the said election were actually forged. Petitioners failed to produce the genuine certificate from which the alleged forged certificate was made.
“There is no document or oral testimony from the school disclaiming the 2nd respondent’s certificate or citizenship. Pw 27 testimony regarding forgery is documentary hearsay, not being the maker, apart from being anchored on unpleaded fact”, the party stated, adding that the two set of documents produced by the petitioners do not align, as the document submitted to INEC is not what was produced by petitioners as the forged document from the school
