Date: 2019-07-24

The governorship election tribunal sitting in Ilorin has heard explanation by one of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq's secondary school classmates, Muhammed Kabiru Yaro, who testified that the governor possesses genuine WAEC certificate.

Yaro, an architect, said Abdulrazaq was his bosom friend, adding that alongside other members of their set, they sat for WAEC in June 1976 at Government College in Kaduna.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Razak Atunwa, are alleging that the governor presented forged WAEC certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest the election.

During cross-examination by the All Progressives Congress (APC) counsel, Chief Akin Olujimi, Yaro presented his original WAEC certificate in court for perusal. "I have my own certificate obtained from that WAEC examination," he said

He also revealed that during their time, WAEC would write their surnames in full and initialize other names. He added: "AbdulRahman, as we used to call 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," he said Olujimi prayed the court for them to tender the certificate of the witness as evidence, which the tribunal acceded to. He said "I humbly tender the certificate of the witness as evidence," which petitioners' counsel Kinsley Odey did not object to.

However, Mr Odey asked for re-cross-examination of the witness on his 1976 WAEC certificate adopted as evidence in the spirit of fair-hearing. "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 was a surprise to the petitioners," he said.