In the midst of the controversy over President Bola Tinubu and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s certificates, the Lamidi Apapa section of the Labour Party, LP, is asserting that the party’s presidential candidate’s NYSC and university certificates show a different name.
Atiku is accused of getting Tinubu a different certificate from the one he received from Chicago State University. Tinubu has refuted this accusation, and a BBC fact-checker has concurred with the president.
On the other hand, Siddque is claimed to be the name on Atiku’s high school transcript, not Atiku. To prove a name change, he produced an affidavit from more than 30 years ago.
In an interview with AIT on Thursday, Lamidi Apapa’s national publicity secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, made the accusation.
Arabambi claimed to have been one of those who interviewed Obi in advance of the party’s presidential primary.
Arabambi asserts that the name on Obi’s University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) academic certificate conflicts with the name on his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate.
Arabambi said:
“I was part of the people who did the screening for him. In the form EC9 we gave him, he wrote that he attended the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and that he finished his youth service.
“But unfortunately, in the final submission of the form, he only submitted his school certificate.
“So something is fishy, and I want to say the name the school sent for mobilisation was not what was written on his NYSC certificate, and he knows that.“For us, we don’t know the true identity of Peter Obi even in the Labour Party because everything was shrouded in secrecy at that time in Asaba.
“You know we were rushing because we had just a day to do our presidential primary, and that was why he was able to get away with it.
“But we have it on record that Obi’s name on his NYSC certificate and the one on his University of Nigeria, Nsukka, certificate are different,” he said.