WAEC Deputy Registrar disowns President Buhari’s Cambridge credentials during cross-examination

The Deputy Registrar of the West African Examination Council, WAEC, Osidehinde Adewunmi, on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, disowned the Cambridge University’s Moderated International Examination credentials produced by President Muhammadu Buhari and tendered as exhibits before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja.

Buhari’s statement of results and also the broadsheet for the results of the 18 candidates who sat for the examinations in 1961 were earlier admitted in evidence as Exhibits 19 and 21.

Adewunmi, who was subpoenaed to appear before the Justice Mohammed Garba-led five-member panel tribunal, admitted to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal that he, in his capacity as a WAEC official, certified one of the documents bearing the name of the University of Cambridge Moderated Examination earlier tendered as Exhibit marked R21.

He made this admission while being cross-examined by the counsel for the All Progressives Congress, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).

Adewunmi appeared as Buhari’s fourth defence witness in the petition filed by the People’s Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, challenging Buhari’s victory at the February 23, 2019 election.

Part of the grounds of the petition filed by PDP and Atiku Abubakar was that President Buhari lacked the educational qualification to contest the presidential election.

Adewunmi, while being cross-examined by the counsel for APC, told the tribunal he had been working with WAEC for about 30 years. He added that the examination was conducted by Cambridge University in conjunction with WAEC.

He further confirmed that 18 people sat for the examinations in 1961, adding that Buhari was listed as number two on the list of candidates for the examination.

He also confirmed that Buhari sat for eight subjects and had five credits in the examination – Oral English, C5; History, A3; Geography, C6; Hausa, C5; and Health Science, C6.

He added that Buhari came out with aggregate score of 32 and was categorized in Grade 2.

He went on to confirm that “whoever has this result (the R21 exhibit) has secondary education.”

However, when being cross-examined by the counsel to PDP and Atiku Abubakar, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), Adewunmi was asked if Exhibit R19 was a certificate and he replied, “I cannot say whether it is a certificate because my signature is not on the certificate. It is not bearing my name or the name of my organisation”.

Asked again, the witness – Adewunmi – said, “This document is bearing the name of Cambridge University Assessment International Education”.

Asked if the document was issued by WAEC, he said,  “It is not a document from the West Africa Examination Council”.

Asked about Exhibit R21, he said, “This is the foundation, the primary foundation for issuance of a certificate.”

The witness was also asked if the document was a certificate and he replied: “This is not a certificate”.

When asked if he had ever worked in the University of Cambridge, he answered, “I have never worked with the University of Cambridge”.

In his bid to point out contradictions in the two documents, the petitioners’ lawyer, Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), asked the witness to compare the number of subjects listed against Buhari’s name in both documents.

The witness confirmed that in exhibit R21, “the number of subjects listed against the 2nd respondent (Buhari) is eight”, and in exhibit R19 only “six subjects” were listed against his name.

Adewunmi also confirmed that the first name on the two documents was “Mohamed” and not the President’s name, “Muhammadu”.

Asked if he knew one Dr. Iyi Uwadiae, Adewunmi said he does and identified him as the current Registrar of WAEC. 

Asked if he was aware that Dr. Iyi issued a WAEC attestation certificate to Buhari on November 2, 2018, the witness said: “Yes I am aware”. 

However, he said it was not true that such attestation could only be given when a candidate misplaced or lost his certificate.