Secret Reporters No place to hide
What seem like a deliberate attempt to mislead the public over the academic records of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari has been finally out to rest with the response of the Nigeria army which confirmed that academic records of the APC presidential flagbearer is in their possession as said by Buhari.
The issue has been a subject debate since the affidavit sworn to by Buhari concerning his academic record in the presidential nomination form submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission became public.
It was however compounded by a media report spearheaded by Vanguard Newspaper, whose headline claimed the Nigeria army denies having the said academic record, even though the content of the report only quoted an unnamed source as the army.
Abusidiqu had earlier responded to the false and deliberate report originating from a newspaper believed to be reliable to the Nigerian people [SEE: Vanguard Newspaper Attempts to Smear Buhari’s Integrity with False Headline Over Certificate Claims]
But dismissing the report, the director of public relations of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier Olaleye Lajide, said reports in the Nigerian media claiming that the army could not find academic records of General Muhammadu Buhari (ret.), the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is false.
The military spokesman made the disclosure in response to a text message seeking clarification about the status of Mr. Buhari’s records. Brigadier Lajide affirmed that the Nigerian Army is in possession of all records of serving, retired and deceased
officers since its inception. He added, however, that all military officers are supposed to keep original copies of their certificates.
According to him, in the event where an officer loses his or her original copy of records, the concerned officer must officially apply for copies from the army. He stated that the army responds to such requests in an expeditious manner.
Brigadier Lajide told our correspondent that he was a former director of records at the Nigerian Army headquarters and had seen records of older and retired generals. He added that he was in no doubt that General Buhari’s records were intact.
Brigadier Olaleye insisted that the claim in a major Nigerian newspaper, that the army could not locate Mr. Buhari’s record was untrue.
Source: Abusidiqu
