The main opposition party, PDP has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to resign immediately over a trendimg video in the social media where Information Minister, Lai Mohammed appealed to Nigeri over President’s WAEC Certificate.
In the said video, which hit the social media on Friday, the Minister stated that having left secondary school 53 years ago, Nigerians should pardon Buhari for not knowing where he kept the certificate.
READ ALSO: ENDTIME! Pastor Kidnaps and Kills Church Member Who Just Bought A New Car
The video was an extract from an interview the Minister granted the Channels Television on January 22, 2015 when he was the spokesman for the All Progressives Congress (APC) the in opposition.
“53 years after a fellow had left secondary school; 53 years. I think we should pardon him if he does not even know where he has kept it”, the Minister had said in the video.
But at a media briefing in Abuja on Sunday, spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said the Minister’s plea for pardon was official admission that Buhari did not possess a WAEC certificate, contrary to his claims and disposition before the law.
READ ALSO: XENOPHOBIA: Over 5000 People Lose Jobs – Governor Sanwo-Olu Laments
“President Buhari should save the judiciary and the nation further troubles by immediately”, the party said, adding that
the President should throw in the towel and vacate the presidential seat.
Ologbondiyan said, “Our party mocks the Buhari Presidency for pushing out the video wherein the Minister pleaded with Nigerians to pardon President Buhari over his false WAEC certificate claims.
“PDP notes the deliberate ploy of Alhaji Lai Mohammed to appeal to sentiments, seeing that Mr. President had failed to defend himself before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal”.
READ ALSO: JUST IN: Oyo State PDP Finally Speaks On Dumping Governor Seyi Makinde
The main opposition 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” had been presented before it against the President.
The PDP further said that the pronouncement and appeal for pardon issued by the Minster, who is also a lawyer, was a direct guilt plea, which the party said cannot save the President from the course of justice in the pending petition.
Continuing, Ologbondiyan said, “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 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 in the presidential election petition.
However, the Minister had, earlier, attributed the trending video to what he described as the antics of desperate opposition that has decided to use fake news and disinformation to make Nigeria ungovernable, having lost woefully at the polls.
In a statement on Saturday, signed by his media aide, Mr Segun Adeyemi, the Minister had stated, ”A pattern is emerging of the antics of the desperate opposition to latch on to the use of fake news and disinformation as a strategy to trigger chaos in the country. On Friday (6 Sept 2019).
“They doctored and circulated the video of my appearance on Channels Television in January 2015 (when I was the spokesman of the APC) to make it look like I was begging Nigerians to forgive President Buhari for not having a school certificate.
“Worse still, they posted the video afresh, giving the impression it happened last Thursday and that I acted in my capacity as Minister of Information and Culture.
”Unfortunately for them, this doctored video came out on the same day a report emerged that the PDP had sent lawyers and party agents to the University of Cambridge to confirm the authenticity of the President’s West African School Certificate, only to be stunned to discover that not only did the President write the examination, he also passed.
”One would have expected a party that trumpets its belief in the rule of law, a party that challenged the result of the last presidential election in court, to wait patiently for the impending judgement on the issue instead of engaging in underhand tactics and resorting to self help”.
Alhaji Mohammed appealed to Nigerians to be very discerning at this time, and to check the veracity of any information they receive.
”This is just the beginning. Nigerians should expect an explosion of fake news and disinformation in the days and weeks ahead. This is because the desperation of this opposition is alarming. But their strategy will fail, just like every other dubious strategy that they have been employing in their desperate bid to grab power”, he said.
The Minister warned those behind the orchestrated fake news and disinformation campaign to stop forthwith or be made to face the music.
www.sojworldnews.com (c) September 8, 2019
Leave a Reply