2015 poll: Mimiko mounted pressure for Buhari’s trial for ‘certificate forgery’, says Adoke

THE last has not been heard on the 2015 general elections following a revelation yesterday by a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke(SAN) that former Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko mounted pressure on him to prosecute then candidate Muhammadu Buhari for certificate forgery.

He said he resisted the pressure because he believed that Buhari was eminently qualified to contest the 2015 presidential poll.

Adoke stated this in a written statement on what transpired behind the curtains before the 2015 poll.

His statement was read in Abuja by Ovation Publisher Dele Momodu at the presentation of a book, “On a Platter of Gold: How Jonathan won and lost Nigeria,” written by a former Minister of Sports Bolaji Abdullahi.

The ex-AGF said: “Further to our discussion sir, I hereby confirm that what Bolaji wrote in his book in respect of Mimiko putting pressure on me to issue a fiat to prosecute PMB (Buhari) is true.

“A lawyer had previously written to seek my fiat to prosecute PMB for forgery and I declined on the ground that there were no materials placed before me to exercise my discretion and that the request does not satisfy the legal threshold for me to exercise my discretion to grant fiat to prosecute General Buhari.

“Subsequent to that, I was called by Governor Mimiko who tried to prevail on me to issue the fiat for political expediency and I refused by making it very clear to him that the legal threshold for the exercise of my discretion has not been met and that in any case, assuming General Buhari has no secondary school certificate, he has the equivalent of a school certificate as he is a retired General and a former Head of State and thus satisfied the qualification requirement of the constitution to contest the office of the president.

“I further informed him that the Court of Appeal, Benin had settled the law in that aspect. I left him and proceeded to brief the President on my encounter with Governor Mimiko and my response to his request. President Jonathan agreed with me and said I should uphold the letters of the constitution and the law…”

“And l added that he (Buhari) attended the War College in the United States as a serving General and as such more than qualified to contest…”

The presentation of Adoke’s clarification drew applause from the audience at the book launch.

Also, a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Ahmed Adamu Mu‘azu said Jonathan was under intense pressure from different friends and associates not to give up power.

Momodu also related the encounter he had with Mu‘azu on how Jonathan almost changed his mind to concede defeat to Buhari.

He said: “l have also read accounts of how President Goodluck Jonathan nearly changed his mind after congratulating the winner and wanted to use PDP operatives and apparatus to challenge the authenticity and validity of the election results in the courts but the PDP Chairman Alhaji Ahmed Adamu Mu‘azu blatantly refused to support such a move.

“When we spoke last week, he (confirmed it was a true account of what happened and said President Jonathan was under intense pressure from different friends and associates not to give up power. He insists that his decision was to save his flagbearer from agents of chaos and save Nigeria from even bigger and unnecessary catastrophe!”

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