By Nasir Kura
President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to attach necessary supporting documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC insisting that they were in the custody of the military.
In the affidavit which he swore to, Buhari said, “I am the above named person and the deponent of this affidavit herein. All my academic qualification documents as filled in my Presidential form, APC/001/2015 are currently with the Secretary of the Military Board as of the time of this affidavit.”
About 70 presidential candidates names has been posted by INEC as those who will participate in the presidential election in 2019.
The list was posted with INEC’s timetable which fixed October 25 for the publication of candidates of political parties across the country.
Some of the candidates include: President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, Obadiah Mailafia of the African Democratic Congress, and former Governor of Cross River, Donald Duke, of the Social Democratic Party.
He said, “So far, over 70 candidates have been counted. A more comprehensive list will be published on Friday.”
The source said the ballot paper for the presidential election would also be long, adding that the announcement of election results in 2019 might even take longer.
Meanwhile, the various candidates’ credentials were made available to journalists on Thursday.
On his part, Atiku submitted all relevant documents, with a Diploma in Law in 1969 from the Ahmadu Bello University being his highest qualification.
The former Vice-President also attached tax returns indicating that he had paid N10.8m in tax from 2015 to 2017 while declaring his income within the period as N60.2m.
