Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega has said that even if presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, General Mohammadu Buhari (rtd) is unable to present his certificate, he cannot be disqualified from the election.
Jega while speaking during an interview on a Channels TV programme, titled, Straight Talk With Kadaria, said “There is a provision that the candidates should provide documentary evidence of whatever qualification they have cited, but the law also permits that if you cite documents and you don’t have photocopies, you can swear to an affidavit and in this case, INEC by the provision of the section 31 of the Electoral Act cannot disqualify an appropriately nominated candidate of any party.
“We can deregister a political party, but the law says we must accept any candidate; it is a matter for the court, they are free to go to the court.”
Fortunately, Buhari made his certificates available to the press yesterday.
On the issue of cloned Permanent Voters Cards, he assured Nigerians that the PVCs cannot be cloned, he said “They can attempt to clone our cards but they cannot succeed. The card reader would detect any fraud. We are 100 percent sure that no cloned card will be used.”
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