The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reacted to the claims of complicity leveled against it by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the controversy surrounding the educational qualifications of the All Progressive Council (APC), Presidential Candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, stating that the commission has no powers to disqualify any candidate sent to it by the political parties.
According to the PDP Presidential Campaigns Spokesman, Chief Femi Fani Kayode, “It has been brought to our attention that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), either by error of omission or commission, may be engaged in acts that do not, in every material particular, support the advancement of democracy, the rule of law and the strict adherence to the letters and the spirit of electoral laws in Nigeria.
“The inability of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, to present even the minimum requirement of just a leaving school certificate questions his moral and other credentials for pursuing the position of the president of Nigeria. The current shocking disclosures bring to the fore how and what qualifications were used to recruit him into the military, without a minimum school leaving certificate, where he rose to the rank of a General and even became the Head of state through a military coup that truncated a democratically-elected government in 1983.
“Beyond the moral burden of human rights abuses and other sundry anti-democratic practices in his public records, we find that even in other spheres of democratic practices and, in particular, on the matter of due processes, his disdain for democratic conduct has not changed. Academic qualification is a threshold issue that cannot be waived for any citizen no matter how highly-placed and irrespective of whichever region such individual comes from except as provided by the constitution.”
But in a swift reaction, the INEC’s Director of Voters Education and Publicity, Barrister Wale Uzzi and INEC Director of Legal Services, Ibrahim Bawa, they said that the commission has no constitutional powers to disqualify any candidate presented to it by the political parties.
According to the INEC Director of Voters Education and Publicity, “In line with section 31 of the Electoral Act, the commission has no powers to disqualify any candidate whose name was submitted to INEC. This is the power of the law and it is expected that a political party in the calibre of the PDP should know this aspect of the provision of the law.
“If the PDP is strong on this matter, it knows what to do. Take him to court and that is the only option. If any political party is aggrieved and is serious about it, the only option available is the court.”
But seriously speaking, the INEC Director in charge of Voter Education and Publicity said that the commission complied with the letters of the 1999 constitution and the Electoral Act (2010) as amended.
He said that General Buhari complied to the provisions of the constitution and Electoral Act as far as he has provided the commission with an affidavit to prove that he (Buhari) has the necessary certificates to contest for the presidential election.
Uzzi went further to clarify, saying, “it is not necessary the provision of the certificates but evidence that he is educated.”
Confirming what the INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity said, the INEC Director of Legal Services, Barrister Ibrahim Bawa said, “the law said that the candidate must be educated to certain level and once you have sworn to an affidavit that you have the necessary educational qualification that serves it.
“It is the responsibility of the PDP to take it like or take the option of going to court. It is only the courts that can direct the commission otherwise.
“This is what the Electoral Act said in section 31 of the amended act that INEC has no powers to disqualify any candidate presented by any political party. This is the position of the law.”
He further disclosed that some Civil Society Organisations have already applied to INEC to have a Certified True Copy of the Academic qualification presented by General Buhari and that INEC has obliged them the request.
Also in an email from Col. Kerr Carol, A CIV US Army AWC (US), it said that a “Nigerian, Col. Muhammadu Buhari is a graduate of the US Army War College Class of 1980 and earned a US Army War College Diploma.”
It further said that the Army War College first awarded master’s degrees to the Class 2000. Col. Kerr signed off as the Public Affairs Officer of the US Army War College. The email was dated Thursday January 8 2015 with the email address: [email protected].
Source: Thisdaylive
