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| Kwara state Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq |
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 is his bosom friend added that both of them and other members of the class sat for WAEC in June 1976 at the college in Kaduna, Kaduna state.
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate in the March 9th, 2019 election Razak Atunwa are alleging that business mogul-turned politician presented fake and 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, adding that “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 initialize other names.
He added that “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 about what I know about the certificate of AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq he was very much qualified to contest the March 9th, 2019 election.”
Chief Olujimi prayed the court for the 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 the re-cross-examination of the witness on his 1976 WAEC certificate adopted as evidence in the spirit of fair-hearing.
He said that “during the pre-trial session parties were asked to present documents for identification, but AbudlRazaq (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.”
Responding Chief Olujimi urged the tribunal to dismiss the petitioners’ counsel for application 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 i.e. 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.”
Hearing on the petition continues Wednesday.
