Buhari has no certificate scandal – Presidency

The Presidency says President Muhammadu Buhari has no certificate case hanging on his neck as being insinuated in some quarters. Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, gave this clarification while reacting to the Sunday Punch newspaper where the president was featured among prominent Nigerians the paper alleges have certificate scandals. Shehu, however, exonerated President Buhari from such category of Nigerian leaders with questionable certificates. He enjoined the Punch editors to update their records to avoid making this repeated mistake. The statement read: “In reaction to your cover story this morning Sunday, March 26,2017, we wish to emphatically state that President Muhammadu Buhari does not fit into your categorisation of leaders with certificate scandals because he bears none that is on available records. “In the course of the contest for the office of the President in 2015, a number of wild, untrue and malicious allegations were made against him in order to stop him from contesting for the office in the election. “The issue of certificates was raised against him but the campaign successfully dealt with the allegations by providing evidence that not only was he qualified to run, he had a far higher academic qualification than is required by the constitution. As a result, he went on to run for the office and eventually won. “Since the purpose of the challenge was primarily to stop him from being a candidate in that election, the challengers either voluntarily withdrew or abandoned the cases soon after he won and all of them were subsequently struck off by the courts.’’ The Presidential aide therefore maintained that President had no certificate case hanging on his neck. “The Punch editors should kindly update their records to avoid making this repeated mistake.’’ – NAN.