The Presidency has insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari is not involved in any certificate scandal in the country.
It said in a statement that no such scandal was hanging on the President’s neck.
The clarification came after a publication in the media chronicling certificate scandals that has rocked various Nigerians in the corridors of power past or present.
Recall that during the 2015 general elections, Buhari faced serious scrutiny with regards to his school certificate qualifications which was like an albatross on his neck and it almost led to his disqualified.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Shehu Garba said the issue was a campaign of calumny deliberately launched against Buhari to stop him from contesting.
He said that APC Presidential Campaign Committee cleared any doubt at that time by making available Buhari’s credential which later showed that he was over-qualified to run for the office of the President.
The spokesman disclosed that shortly after Buhari won the election, his challengers either withdrew from the matter or that the matter was struck out from the court.
Shehu urged the media to cross check their facts so as not to mislead the members of the public.
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He said, “We wish to emphatically state that President Muhammadu Buhari does not fit into categorization 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.
“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 win.
“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 President has no certificate case hanging on his neck. The Punch editors should kindly update their records to avoid making this repeated mistake.”
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