Mohammed Kabiru Yaro, classmate of the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, Tuesday, told the Governorship Elections Tribunal sitting in Ilorin, that the governor possesses genuine and authentic West African Examination Council, (WAEC) certificate.
Yaro, an architect, said that Governor Abdulrazaq is his bosom friend and that both of them and other members of the class sat for WAEC in June, 1976 at the Government College, Kaduna, in Kaduna state.
The state Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Razaq Atunwa, are alleging that the business mogul turned politician presented forged WAEC certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to contest the election.
Being led in evidence by the All Progressives Congress, APC, counsel, Akin Olujimi, (SAN), Yaro presented his original WAEC certificate in court for perusal.
He stated that “l have my own certificate obtained from that WAEC examinations”.
Yaro added that “Abdulrahman, as we fondly 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 governorship election”.
Olujimi later tendered certificate of the witness as evidence.
However, Counsel to the petitioners, Kingsley Odey, while opposing the tendering of the document said that “during the pre trial session, parties were asked to present documents for identification, but Abdulrazaq (2nd defendant) 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.”
