BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – The legal battle by former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the February 25 Presidential election, Atiku Abubakar to access the Chicago State University’s academic records of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took another dramatic turn on Monday, September 26, 2023, with the president willing to make only a partial concession to the request.
Obviously backing down from his initial strong resistance to Atiku’s prayer before the United States Court, Tinubu says he is now ready to have only his university certificate made available for public scrutiny by the PDP standard bearer.
According to his plea before Judge Nancy Maldonado, all other relevant details, particularly in relation to his gender and necessary admission documents, should not be disclosed or given to Atiku and the opposition PDP.
Tinubu’s counsel made the submission on Monday as part of the unfolding legal tussle at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.
The latest development comes against the backdrop of speculations and claims in the social media space that President Tinubu, may have relied on the letter of a female, but now late student, to allegedly process his admission into the University.
It is the contention of Tinubu’s counsel that Atiku is only on a “fishing expedition to fuel online conspiracy theories”, even as the President’s camp also insists that allowing the deposition of CSU officials to go on would inflict severe, and irreparable damage to his person.
Pleading that severe harm would come to his person if there is no stay of execution on the Magistrate judge’s order issued on September 19 that his certificate be released to Atiku within 24 hours, President Tinubu got a temporary reprieve and narrowly escaped full disclosure on September 21, 2023.
Judge Jeffrey Gilbert had, in his ruling, directed CSU administrators to confirm under oath whether or not the certificate Tinubu tendered in Nigeria was genuine. Additionally, the officials were mandated to show a certificate issued to a CSU graduate in 1979, with the person’s identification redacted, and to also turn over communications relating to a letter the school issued to Mr Tinubu in 2022.
However, in their submission to the court seeking a review of Judge Gilbert’s order by the District Judge, Ms Maldonado, the President’s legal team pointedly argued thus; “There is harm in allowing discovery on issues and documents outside the diploma.”
Atiku instituted the case as part of his legal pursuit to establish that in spite of being declared winner of the February 2023 poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu was ineligible to contest for the Nigerian presidency ab initio
Controversy and name crisis have been trailing the real identity of the person who gained admission into Chicago State University in the 1970s. This is after College transcripts surfaced online indicating that the institution may have admitted a female Bola Tinubu from Southwest College Chicago in 1977.
Meanwhile, a man, who identified himself as Olajide Adeniji, on Monday, September 26, submitted an affidavit in court depositing that he attended the same university with Mr Tinubu from 1977 to 1979 as his classmate.
