. Kwara gov sat 1976 WASSCE, classmate tells tribunal
By Valentine Amanze
Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, on Tuesday congratulated the two ministerial nominees from the state, Alhaji Lai Mohamed and Senator Gbemisola Saraki.
In a statement by the governor’s spokesman, Rafiu Ajakaye:
“The governor congratulates the distinguished nominees for the honour done to them and our dear state. He considers it a great honour to have two ministerial slots ceded to Kwara State.
“It is an affirmation of the special place this state holds in the heart of President Muhammadu Buhari.”
The statement urged the National Assembly, especially senators from Kwara State, to offer their full backing for smooth screening of the nominees of the President in the overall interest of the country.
Meanwhile, a classmate of the Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq at the Government College, Kaduna, Mohammed Kabiru Yaro, on Tuesday told the Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Ilorin that the governor possesses genuine and authentic West African Examinations Council (WAEC) certificate.
Yaro, an architect, added that Governor AbdulRazaq was his bosom friend and that both of them and other members of the class sat WAEC in June 1976 at the Government College in Kaduna, Kaduna State.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate in the March 9, 2019 general election, Razak Atunwa, are alleging that the business mogul-turned politician presented forged WAEC certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest the election.
During a cross-examination by the All Progressives Congress (APC) counsel, Akin Olujimi (SAN), Yaro presented his original WAEC certificate in court for perusal, adding, “I have my own
certificate obtained from that WAEC examination.”
He also revealed that during their time, WAEC would write their surnames in full and initialise other names.
He added: “AbdulRahman, as we used to refer to him, was directly seated in my front and his serial number in WAEC was 199, while mine was 122.
“Based on what I know about the certificate of AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, he was very much qualified to contest the March 9, 2019 election.”
Olujimi later tendered the certificate of the witness as evidence.
However, counsel to the petitioners, Kingsley Odey, asked to re-cross-examine the witness on his 1976 WAEC certificate adopted as evidence in the spirit of fair-hearing.
He said, “During the pre-trial session parties were asked to present documents for identification, but AbdulRazaq (2nd respondent) did not present his WAEC certificate for identification. The
presentation of such document today is a surprise to the petitioners.
“Our application is that the petitioners should be given the opportunity to examine the witness on the document in the interest of fair-hearing.”
Olujimi however urged the tribunal to dismiss the application to re-cross examine the certificate as un-meritorious.
Said he: “In my limited number of years in practice, I have always known of three categories of examination; ie. examination-in-chief, cross-examination and re-examination. Once a tribunal or court has offered parties the opportunity as may be relevant or applied to each party, there is no fourth category of examination that is called re-cross-examination which is what the petitioners’ counsel is praying your lordships.”