WAEC Deputy Registrar disowns President Buhari's Cambridge credentials during cross-examination
Buhari’s statement of results and also the broadsheet for the results
of the 18 candidates who sat for the examinations in 1961 were earlier
admitted in evidence as Exhibits 19 and 21.
The Deputy Registrar of the West African Examination Council, WAEC,
Osidehinde Adewunmi, on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, 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.
Adewunmi, who was subpoenaed to appear before the Justice Mohammed
Garba-led five-member panel tribunal, admitted to the Presidential
Election Petition Tribunal that he, in his capacity 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.
He made this admission while being cross-examined by the counsel for the All Progressives Congress, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
Adewunmi appeared as Buhari’s fourth defence witness in the petition
filed by the People's Democratic Party and its presidential candidate,
Atiku Abubakar, challenging Buhari’s victory at the February 23, 2019
election.
Part of the grounds of the petition filed by PDP and Atiku Abubakar
was that President Buhari lacked the educational qualification to
contest the presidential election.
Adewunmi, while being cross-examined by the counsel for APC, told the
tribunal he had been working with WAEC for about 30 years. He added
that the examination was conducted by Cambridge University in
conjunction with WAEC.
He further confirmed that 18 people sat for the examinations in 1961,
adding that Buhari was listed as number two on the list of candidates
for the examination.
He also 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 added that Buhari came out with aggregate score of 32 and was categorized in Grade 2.
He went on to confirm that “whoever has this result (the R21 exhibit) has secondary education."
However, when being cross-examined by the counsel to PDP and Atiku
Abubakar, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), Adewunmi was asked if Exhibit R19 was a
certificate and he replied, “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 - Adewunmi - 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 and he replied: "This is not a certificate".
When asked if he had ever worked in the University of Cambridge, he
answered, “I have never worked with the University of Cambridge”.
In his bid to point out contradictions in the two documents, the
petitioners’ lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), asked the witness to compare
the number of subjects listed against Buhari's name in both documents.
The witness confirmed that in exhibit R21, “the number of subjects
listed against the 2nd respondent (Buhari) is eight”, and in exhibit R19
only “six subjects” were listed against his name.
Adewunmi also confirmed that the first name on the two documents was “Mohamed” and not the President's name, “Muhammadu”.
Asked if he knew one Dr. Iyi Uwadiae, Adewunmi said he does and identified him as the current Registrar of WAEC.
Asked if he was aware that Dr. Iyi issued a WAEC attestation
certificate to Buhari on November 2, 2018, the witness said: “Yes I am
aware”.
However, he said it was not true that such attestation could only be given when a candidate misplaced or lost his certificate.
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