A former deputy registrar of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Henry Adewunmi,  yesterday told the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal that President Muhammadu Buhari obtained a Cambridge University West African examination certificate with five credits, contrary to claims by the opposition.

The subjects passed by Mr. Buhari, according to the witness, are Oral English, C 5; History, A3; Geography, C6; Hausa, C5; and Health Science, C6

Buhari on Tuesday opened his defence against the petition filed by the PDP, Atiku.

Adewunmi, a witness called to the stand by Wole Olanipekun, Buhari’s counsel, said this while being cross-examined by Livy Uzokwu, counsel of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The former WAEC official, however, noted that Cambridge certificate presented to the tribunal has a typographical error.

He explained that the Cambridge certificate has “Mohamed Buhari” rather than “Muhammadu Buhari” as the name of the second respondent.

The petitioners – PDP and Atiku Abubakar, its presidential candidate – argued that Buhari did not have the qualification to hold the highest office in the country.

Adewunmi said although the Cambridge certificate has six subjects, the president sat for eight in 1961.

Buhari wrote the exams with 17 others and had an aggregate of 32, the witness said.

According to him, Buhari was listed as number two in the order of those who took the exams.

The witness said the president passed English, history, geography, Hausa and health science.

Mohammed Kwatu, another witness called to the stand by Olanipekun, said there was no over voting in his ward in Niger state.

When asked if he knows that election would not hold if a card reader failed to accredit voters, Usman said: “I don’t know.”

Thereafter, Olanipekun prayed for an adjournment till today.

The tribunal led my Mohammed Garba granted his request.

The whereabouts of the president’s academic records have been a source of debate.

President Buhari’s military course mate had told the tribunal that the army did not ask them to submit their certificates during enlistment.

Paul Tarfa, a retired major general, made the submission on Tuesday while testifying as Buhari’s first defence witness in the petition challenging the president’s re-election.

Buhari had failed to submit the credentials to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the elections, claiming that all his academic qualification documents “as filled in my Presidential form, APC/001/2015 are currently with the Secretary of the Military Board.”

The PDP and Atiku  are contesting the victory of  President Buhari. The incumbent president polled 15,191,847 votes to beat the former vice-president, who came in second with 11,262,978 votes.

Atiku, however, described the polls as a “sham election”, rejecting the results.

“In my democratic struggles for the past three decades, I have never seen our democracy so debased as it was on Saturday, February 23, 2019. 2007 was a challenge, but President Yar’Adua was remorseful. In 2019, it is sad to see those who trampled on democracy thumping their noses down on the Nigerian people. Consequently, I hereby reject the result of the February 23, 2019 sham election and will be challenging it in court,” he said.

He maintained that his party won the elections with over 1 million votes from details seen by the petitioners during its investigation.