As the controversy surrounding President Muhammadu Buhari’s West African Senior Certificate, WASC, lingers, Post-Nigeria’s investigation shows that the President would be paying a whopping sum of 200 million Naira, for the services of 13 Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, in order to ensure that, the case does not to see the light of the day.
Sources, said that the said amount excludes other charges that the lawyers would be collecting on a monthly basis.
“An average SAN charges the sum of 10 million Naira as consultancy fees, and going by 13 SANs, coupled with other lawyers in their team, Buhari will not be spending less than 200 million Naira, to defend his no certificate syndrome,’’ a legal practitioner said.
This is coming at a time when most of the States are unable to pay salaries, coupled with high level of unemployment in the country.
However, Post-Nigeria was unable to find out if the whopping sum would be coming from the coffers of the Federal Government or from the President’s personal savings.
Recall, that an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Nnamdi Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe, had alleged that Buhari was unqualified to be Nigeria’s president, due to the fact that he has no valid WASC certificate.
An issue which has left many Nigerians confused, is why the President cannot present a mere certificate, but rather prefers to hire the services of 13 legal heavy weights, to defend him.
Nigerians had completely forgotten about Buhari’s certificate saga, until reports surfaced recently that the case was still in court.
The Abuja-based legal practitioner, had dragged Buhari to court, challenging the authenticity of his WASC result and arguing that he did not meet the educational requirement to contest as President of Nigeriain 2015.
He alleged that the president did not sit for the Cambridge West African School Certificate in 1961, as he claimed.
On May 26, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, of the Federal High Court in Abuja, dismissed Buhari’s preliminary objection to Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe’s suit.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the president has employed the services of 13 SANs, and 10 other counsels, to appeal the ruling of Justice Ademola.
The 13 SANs who make up Buhari’s legal team are; Chief Wole Olanipekun, Lateef O. Fagbemi, Chief Akin Olujinmi, Oluwarotimi O. Akeredolu, Kola Awodein, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan, Charles Edosomwan, Emeka Ngige, Femi Atoyebi, Femi Falana, Funke Aboyade, H.O. Afolabi, Muiz Banire and 10 other counsels.
These lawyers are challenging Justice Ademola’s ruling, which requests that Buhari should enter into defense in the case challenging his eligibility to contest the last election, on account of being academically unqualified.
However, some Nigerians are wondering why President Buhari needs 13 legal heavy weights to argue his case, rather than presenting his certificate, if it really exists.
“All this and the cost of it, just for him not to be mandated to produce his WASC certificate, which is glaring now, that he does not have it.“A certificate he claimed to have, knowing fully well he does not, and people come here to talk of his integrity. Tufiakwa,” Chukwunenye Obiezu wrote on Facebook.
Uchenna Maduwuba, a resident of Port Harcourt, blamed former president, Goodluck Jonathan, for allowing Buhari contest the election without a certificate. “It was as if everyone was jinxed,” he noted.
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