Headlines
Order Army to Produce Your Certificates if they Exist, Atiku Lashes Out at Buhari
The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for saying his academic certificates are with the Nigerian Army.
Replying to Buhari’s response to their petition filed before the Election Petitions Tribunal, they said if it was true that the certificates existed, Buhari as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces could order the army to produce them.
Atiku said he attached his academic certificates to the Form CF001 he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
In a joint petition filed on March 18, the former Vice-President and his party urged the tribunal to declare them the authentic winner of the February 23 presidential election, insisting Buhari did not possess the educational qualifications he claimed to have in his INEC Form CF001.
They said in the reply filed on April 15 by their legal team, led by Dr Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), that having not been able to attach his academic certificates to INEC Form CF001, Buhari had falsely claimed that his certificates were in the custody of the Nigerian Army.
The joint reply filed by Atiku and the PDP read in part, “In further response to paragraph 381(iv) of the 2nd respondent’s reply, aver that the petitioners have no knowledge of any certificates or alleged qualifications issued to the 2nd respondent (Buhari), but contend that 2nd respondent falsely represented that his certificates are in the custody of the Nigerian Army when the 2nd respondent by his own admission is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
“In further response to paragraph 381(iv) of the 2nd respondent’s reply, the petitioners aver that the 2nd respondent as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria could easily order the Army Secretary to produce the certificates allegedly submitted if they actually exist.
“Contrary to paragraph 381(i-iv) of the 2nd respondent’s reply, the petitioners aver that the 2nd respondent does not possess the educational qualification he claimed to have in his INEC Form CF001 submitted to the 1st respondent (INEC) having not been attached as required.”
The petitioners also stated that “the purported training and courses”, which Buhari claimed placed him “head and shoulders above” Atiku regarding educational qualifications to contest the presidential election, “did not culminate in the issuance of any certificates he claimed in his INEC Form CF001”.
They also described Buhari’s claim of being head and shoulders above Atiku as “erroneous”.
Responding to Buhari’s allegation that Atiku didn’t have the statutory educational qualifications to contest the polls, the petitioners stated that the ex-VP attached his educational qualifications to his Form CF001 submitted to INEC.
Insisting Atiku was qualified to contest election for the office, the petitioners stated that Buhari was unable to present any certificates because he did not possess any “as he falsely claimed”.
They stated, “In reply to paragraph 383 of the 2nd respondent’s reply, the petitioners aver that the 1st petitioner (Atiku) is eminently qualified to contest election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and had indeed attached evidence of his educational qualifications to his INEC Form CF001 submitted to the 1st respondent, unlike the 2nd respondent (Buhari) who did not attach evidence of the qualifications he claimed in his INEC Form CF001 because he does not possess them as he falsely claimed.”
INEC, Buhari, and the All Progressives Congress (Buhari’s party) are the 1st to the 3rd respondents to the petition.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the petition by the tribunal.
The Punch
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expelled Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike, its suspended National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, and former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose.
Their expulsion was announced on Saturday at the party’s National Convention in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has insisted that there is Christian genocide ongoing in Nigeria, hence demanding end to the alleged Christian killings.
Speaking on Thursday after an emergency executive meeting of the Fellowship held at its national headquarters in Lagos, PFN President, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, said the body would no longer remain silent while Christians are “targeted, killed, raped, and displaced” across the country.
He said: “There is Christian genocide going on in Nigeria. If we call it by any other name, it will bring Nigeria down. We are crying out to our international friends, beginning with America and Donald Trump. Whatever you can do to help our government put an end to it, come quickly and get it done. When on Christmas Day, Christmas Day was turned a bloody day in Benue State, and hundreds were massacred. And we are to be conducting mass funerals when we are not in open conflict. What do you call that? And this is different from individual cases.
“Let us call a spade a spade. There is Christian genocide ongoing in Nigeria,”Bishop Oke declared.
“Even while we speak, killings are still taking place in Borno, Plateau, and Benue states. When 501 Christians were massacred in Dogon Noma in Plateau, what do we call that? When Christmas Day turned into a bloody day in Benue, with hundreds massacred, what name should we give it?
While noting that the United States President Donald Trump spoke the truth, the PRN President cited the case of Leah Sharibu who was abducted alongside other Chibok girls and has since remained in captivity.
“Like the case of Leah Sharibu. Where is Leah Sharibu? Like the case of Deborah that was lynched and burned alive in Sokoto? What about that? And several of our girls were kidnapped and forced, given out as wives by force without the consent of their parents and their Christian parents. And the Christian parents would not see them for years.And this has been going on. We have been talking and we are not taking it seriously. And it has been going on again and again, until Donald Trump now spoke. And Donald Trump spoke the truth. There is Christian genocide going on in Nigeria.
“Like you will have picked in the news, even since this narrative began, killing was still going on in Borno, in Plateau, in Benue, up until yesterday. What are we saying? When 501 Christians were massacred in Dogonaya in Plateau State, what do we call that? And for no offense other than they are Christians.”
Oke recalled that the Christian community had repeatedly called the attention of the government to the alleged genocide with no decisive action from the authority.
The cleric expressed his backing for President Trump’s intervention, adding that Trump only echoed what Nigerian Christians had been saying for year
“I was part of the team that went to see the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari. We spoke very strongly about this and the President listened to us, but he completely ignored the main issue we came for, If we came and spoke with such vehemence, with such passion, and then you pick the peripheral matter and left this matter alone, I knew that day that his government was complicit in what was going on,” he added.
Oke alleged that the killings across parts of Nigeria were systematic and targeted on Christians, lamenting that the killings had continued unchecked despite repeated appeals from the Church.
“The evidence is all over the place. There is nothing anybody can say that can whitewash it. It is evil, it is blood shedding, it is mass murder and it is genocide. The time to stop it is now. That is what the church in Nigeria is saying with one voice.
“Christians in this nation must be free to practice their faith in any part of Nigeria as bona fide citizens of Nigeria.
“These armed bandits, Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, ISWAP, all of them using Islam as a cover. We have been living in peace with our Muslim brothers for a long, until this violent Islamic sect came up with an intent to make sure they impose Sharia on all Nigerians,” Oke said.
Bishop Oke called on President Bola Tinubu to decisively overhaul the nation’s security architecture, and ensure justice for victims of religious violence. He questioned why those responsible for notorious attacks—such as the killing of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto and the abduction of Leah Sharibu and the Chibok schoolgirls—remain unpunished.
“The government should prove by action, not words, that it is not complicit,” he said. “When hundreds are buried in mass graves and the whole world sees it, who can deny it? Why should we play politics with the blood of Nigerians?”
The PFN urged President Tinubu’s administration to rebuild trust by ensuring that the security architecture of the country is not infiltrated by those sympathetic to extremist ideologies.
Oke further condemned the government’s rehabilitation of so-called “repentant terrorists,” describing the move as a grave security.
He assured Christians that the PFN would continue to speak out until the killings stop. “We are not going to keep quiet. We will keep raising our voices until justice is done and every Nigerian, regardless of faith, can live in peace. The truth may be suppressed for a time, but it cannot be buried forever,” he said.
The meeting, which drew PFN leaders from across the country, reaffirmed the body’s commitment to national unity, peace, and the protection of fundamental human rights, while urging the media to “side with the oppressed” and report the truth without fear or bias.
US President Donald Trump has signed a federal spending bill, officially ending the longest government shutdown in American history.
The legislation, passed by the House of Representatives in a 222–209 vote, followed narrow approval in the Senate just two days earlier. The bill restores funding to federal agencies after 43 days of closure, bringing relief to millions of government employees and citizens affected by halted services.
Speaking after signing the measure on Wednesday night, Trump described the deal as a political victory, asserting that Democrats unnecessarily prolonged the shutdown.
“They didn’t want to do it the easy way. They had to do it the hard way, and they look very bad,” he said.
The temporary funding bill maintains government operations only through 30 January, creating a new deadline for lawmakers to negotiate a long-term budget solution.
As part of the agreement, Senate leaders committed to an early December vote on Obamacare subsidies, a key priority for Democrats during the shutdown standoff.
In addition to reopening federal offices, the bill provides full-year funding for the Department of Agriculture, military construction projects, and several legislative branch offices.
It also ensures retroactive pay for federal workers affected by the shutdown and allocates funding to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, which helps about one in eight Americans access food.
The shutdown, which began in October, forced the suspension of many government services, leaving an estimated 1.4 million federal employees either furloughed or working without pay. It also disrupted food assistance programmes and caused widespread delays in domestic air travel.
With federal operations now resumed, attention in Washington has turned to whether Congress and the White House can reach a longer-term funding agreement before the new deadline at the end of January.
