President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday, filed an emergency motion to stop the Chicago State University, United States, from releasing his academic record to the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.Tinubu is seeking a delay in the implementation of the self-effectuating order directing the CSU to comply with Atiku’s subpoenas till Monday.
Magistrate Jeffrey Gilbert of the US District Court for Northern District of Illinois, had on Tuesday ordered Tinubu’s alma mater to provide all relevant and non-privileged documents to the applicant, Atiku, within two days.Documents sought by the PDP candidate, through his counsel, Angela Liu, include the record of admission and acceptance at the university, dates of attendance including degrees, awards, and honours attained by Tinubu at the university, among others.
The All Progress Congress had dismissed the efforts of the PDP standard bearer to obtain the President’s academic record as ‘’an expedition in futility.’’The ruling party said it had nothing to fear as the President had always boasted that he had nothing to hide.But Atiku in pursuit of his allegations that Tinubu was ineligible to contest the February 2023 presidential election secured the order to compel the CSU to release the President’s record
Atiku and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, had challenged Tinubu’s electoral victory at the Supreme Court following the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which upheld the President’s mandate on September 6.
Atiku approached the US court for an order compelling the CSU to release Tinubu’s academic record, questioning alleged gaps in the President’s academic history.
Tinubu’s credentials indicated that he graduated from CSU in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Accounting and Management, but there have been allegations of discrepancies with his academic record.But justifying his decision to obtain the President’s record, Atiku said unless a clarification was made, it would be difficult for Nigerians to understand the academic journey of the former Lagos State governor.
In response to an order by the court that he should make a formal filing on why his records should not be released, Tinubu claimed a clerical error was responsible for the discrepancies on the certificate issued to him by the university.
According to filings by Tinubu’s lawyers, Oluwole Afolabi and Christopher Carmichael, an unidentified clerk of the university made the error about the date the school stated on his recently-issued certificate, thereby creating “the appearance of differences.”Regardless of his opposition to Atiku’s application, Magistrate Gilbert ordered the CSU to release all relevant academic records of the President to his political adversary.
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