'No certificate listed on President Buhari's CV' - Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari tells election petitions tribunal

Today, President Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, admitted before the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja that no certificate was listed on the President’s curriculum vitae and that none was among the documents obtained from Cambridge University earlier tendered as exhibits.


Kyari, who testified as the President’s third defence witness, also admitted obtaining the Cambridge documents personally on July 18, 2019. The Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had filed the petition before the tribunal to challenge the victory of President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress in the February 23, 2019 poll.

Part of the grounds of the petition was that Buhari did not possess the academic qualification necessary to contest the poll. Under a cross examination by the petitioners’ lawyer, Kyari said he was 67 years old and that he had known Buhari for nearly 40 years. Kyari also said he signed for and collected the Cambridge documents for the assessment by Cambridge.

He did not say if he traveled to London to obtain the documents; but he confirmed that none of the documents contained a certificate.  He confirmed that the Cambridge documents were “assessments.” He also confirmed that the curriculum vitae signed by Buhari did not have any certificate listed, apart from the list of schools attended by the President.  

He also admitted that the Diploma in Strategic Study which he claimed Buhari possessed was not listed in the President’s CV. Under cross-examination by APC’s lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Kyari, however maintained that Atiku was a Cameroonian by being born in Jadda in 1946, as of the time of which the part of Adamawa State was still a part of Norther Cameroon.
He also identified Buhari in a picture of those who were said to be the President’s classmates and teachers while graduating as a Class 6 pupil in 1961.