SAHARA REPORTERS says he has been using the fake result for elections
Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State, forged his West African Examinations Council (WAEC) result, SaharaReporters has learnt.
Abdulrazaq claimed to have obtained his result from the WAEC in the July 1976 examination at the Government College, Kaduna, but investigations revealed he forged the result he is parading.
The WAEC result is the least educational qualification anyone interested in public service or contesting for any political position must have.
The governorship candidate had his basic and secondary school education in Kaduna. He attended Capital School, Kaduna, between 1966 and 1968; Bishop Smith Memorial School, Ilorin, between 1970 and 1971; and Government College Kaduna, where he claimed to have obtained the result.
Abdulrazaq has been using the result to contest for political positions. He also presented the result to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to qualify him to contest in the 2019 governorship election in Kwara.
A glance at the result obtained by SaharaReporters showed the WAEC result to appear genuine, but when the certificate number was inputted into the database of the examinations board, it revealed that Abdulrazaq had been using a forged certificate.
Investigations also revealed that Abdulrahman did not sit for the examination in the said year.
A staff member of the examinations council, who confirmed that the result is not genuine, said the certificate number written on the result does not exist, while also noting other irregularities on the result.
“We don’t have certificate number SC180683 in the database of WAEC. That means the result is fake. If you look at the result, you would notice that his name was written in initials. The examinations body doesn’t initialize; names are written in full,” the WAEC staff member said.
Abdulrazak’s Political Journey
Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is the son of Alhaji A.G.F. Abdulrazaq (SAN), the first northern lawyer in Nigeria.
He has been involved in active politics since 1999 along with his brother Alhaji Alimi Abdulrazaq. Alimi was one of the few founding members and funders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State.
He contested against Alhaji Mohammed Alabi Lawal of the then All Peoples Party (APP), sponsored by Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki but lost.
Abdulrazaq contested for the seat of the governorship of Kwara State on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change in 2011 but lost.
He also failed to win the seat of Kwara Central Senatorial district with PDP, losing to Bukola Saraki.
He defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in September 2018, on which platform he is contesting for the governorship of the state.
Litigation
A suit was filed by one Adekunle Oluwafemi Abraham at the Kwara State High Court to challenge the authenticity of the WAEC certificate of Abdulrazaq.
The application submitted in court read: “That I also know as a fact that the defendant did not sit for the West African Examination Council School Certificate Examination and was therefore not issued with the purported West African Examination Council (WAEC) School Certificate No. SC180683 dated June 1967 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the defendant.”
Deciding on the case, Justice Adenike Akinpelu ordered Abdulrazaq to defend himself on the case within 30 days.
Justice Akinpelu said: “In the court’s writ dated March 7, 2019, the court ordered the defendant (Abdurahman Abdulrazaq) to within 30 days after the service of this writ on you inclusive of the day of such service, you do cause an appearance to be entered in an action at the suit of Adekunle Oluwafemi Abraham and take notice that in default of you doing so, the claimant may proceed therein and judgment may be given in your absence.”
SaharaReporters attempted to reach Abdulrazaq for comments, but calls to his number were unanswered.
