Certificate saga: PDP dismisses plea for pardon, asks Buhari to vacate office
…Urges judiciary to uphold justice
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed the plea by the Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that Nigerians should pardon President Muhammadu Buhari’s inability to present the minimum educational requirement of secondary school certificate while filling for nomination to contest the 2019 presidential election.
The party told the President to toe the part of honour having scammed the entire country, throw in the towel and vacate office as President.
Addressing the press on Sunday in Abuja, National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said that President Buhari “should save the judiciary and the nation further troubles by immediately throwing in the towel and vacating the presidential seat following the official admission that he (Buhari) does not possess a WAEC certificate, contrary to his claims and disposition before the law.”
The party mocked the Buhari Presidency for pushing out the video wherein the minister pleaded with Nigerians to pardon President Buhari over his false WAEC certificate claims, noting that Alhaji Lai Mohammed deliberately appealed to sentiments, seeing that Mr. President has failed to defend himself before the Presidential petition tribunal.
The party berated the Presidency for believing that in pushing the video into the public space, it could influence the mind of the tribunal to bend the law after solid evidence have been presented before it against President Buhari.
“The PDP holds that the pronouncement and appeal for pardon issued by the government’s spokesperson, who is also a lawyer, is a direct guilty plea, which cannot save President Buhari from the course of justice in this matter.
“From the official pronouncement by the Minister on a national television, it is no longer in dispute before all Nigerians that President Buhari does not possess the educational certificate he claimed in the affidavit he deposed to in his Presidential nomination form.
“In this latest shenanigan, President Buhari and his handlers ought to have known that the law, which the judiciary is bound to uphold, is a respecter of no man.
“The PDP reminds President Buhari of how his Presidency vehemently applied the law in similar circumstance to remove a head of an arm of government; a situation, which renders his plea for pardon a complete nullity before the law.
“The PDP holds that if President Buhari indeed seeks for pardon from Nigerians, he should do the needful by toeing the path of honour and vacating the Presidential seat without further delay.
“It is disheartening that President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) would put our nation through the troubles of legal hassles when they knew all the while that they were building something on nothing”, the party said.
The PDP, therefore, urged the judiciary to consider the evidence before it and rescue the nation by expediting its verdict to point to nothing other than the justice of the matter in the Presidential election petition.
