The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, has commenced push for the disqualification of the Deputy Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Anambra State, Senator Uche Ekwunife.
The running mate had tendered a PhD certificate from Atlantic International University, State of Hawaii, in the US to INEC, but APGA insists that a fact-check has revealed that the university is unapproved and can as well be dismissed as a degree mill for people desperate to acquire certificates.
APGA, in a post by its National Publicity Secretary, Ejimofor Opara, insists that for Ekwunife to jump from presenting her degree certificate or even her master’s certificate to present a PhD certificate from an unrecognized institution shows her other certificates may be questionable.
Opara said: “Some of us believe, and wrongly so, that once a university is ‘abroad’ then it is legal and accredited. This erroneous thinking can be permissible amongst certain class of persons in society, not a person in the mould of Uche Ekwunife.
“Hers is willful and deliberate. She wants a PhD but is incapable of the intellectual rigour to earn it.
“Now, the question before INEC Nigeria as a body set up by law is – should certificates from unapproved and unaccredited schools be accepted for official purposes?
“If Uche Ekwunife has the minimum qualification for the office she seeks, why submit, under oath, a certificate from a fake university? Does Uche Ekwunife actually possess an authentic first degree? If yes, where is it? Not submitting it raises lots of doubts, knowing it may be fake too.”
The party said it is important that Uche Ekwunife be used as an example to others brandishing fake higher certificates, as this trend, if unchecked, would make a mess of an already ailing system.
