CHICAGO SAGA: Deposition concluded, certified true copy unavailable yet – Investigation

*Tinubu is vindicated by CSU’s released documents – APC

*We’ve proof President’s certificate submitted to INEC forged – PDP

*Media’s fact-check from CSU’s released documents

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

The DEFENDER can comfortably report that deposition of Chicago State University (CSU) ordered by US District Court Judge Nancy Maldonado to hold on Tuesday October 3, 2023 before the court had taken place.

As at the time of filing this report Wednesday morning, certified true copy of the deposition was not ready for pick as the court was still taking deposition on the Tinubu’s academic records as at around 8pm last night.

However, news by a section of the media have gone round in Nigeria that registrar of CSU, Caleb Westberg, has vindicated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and their evidence, while we investigated the source of that affirmation by the registrar, was a copy of his affidavit being circulated on social media.

However, what is officially required as recognized by the concerned US court is not affidavit of the registrar but certified true copy of his deposition done in the presence of many including agents of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and that is being awaited.

On the interim, our globalised readership can for now be told that Chicago State University had complied with the September 30 order of the Judge Nancy Maldonado’s district court by handing over a 32-page documents of Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who along with Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC) contested for the February 25 presidential election as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

And what was released so far show discrepancies, not about whether or not Tinubu actually attended the university in question and graduated from there but, about certificate he submitted to the electoral umpire here in Nigeria late last year of 2022 preparatory to the 2023 general elections.

From the close watch of the available documents, which are no longer in doubt, there are issues of birthday mismatch, gender error and many questions still left unanswered even as President Tinubu’s ruling APC earlier on Tuesday dared Atiku to submit the documents handed to him on order of the US court at the Supreme Court.

The APC, through its National Publicity Director Bala Ibrahim, chastised the PDP presidential candidate over his effrontery to obtain President Bola Tinubu’s academic records from Chicago State University, even as it attributed the party and Atiku’s action to what Bala Ibrahim called ‘post-election defeat disorder’.

It will be recalled that even President Tinubu was heard loud, among several other leaders locally and internationally, urging Atiku, Peter Obi and other unsatisfied with the results of February 25 presidential election to rather “go to court” than call for him not to be inaugurated as President on May 29, thus sparking surprises that each and every effort made by Atiku and Obi to prove their cases in court have been used by APC to criminalise them.

The sad points being displayed by Tinubu, his ruling party and supporters against those that have gone to court, instead of taking the undemocratic means, have now been pointed to, by watchers of events as reason they supported politicians and lawyers who spoke aloud against Tinubu being inaugurated before all election petitions matters before Tribunal were resolved.

Although the polity has continued to quiet with no section jubilating or celebrating the its candidate’s declaration neither inauguration and has remained so since May 29, the APC’s national publicity director claimed on Tuesday October 2 that Nigerians had rejected Atiku and his opposition following what he called years of mismanagement and then he admonished them the former vice president to retire from active politics.

The APC’s director said, “We have said times without number that the PDP and Atiku are suffering from ‘defeat disorder syndrome.’ The next thing for them to do now is to file another application at the court asking for the number of times Tinubu attended lectures at the Chicago State University.

“There is just nothing they won’t question, including asking God why he created the man Tinubu. There is what they call post-trauma disorder syndrome. If they are not treated for it, they will continue to manifest stupidity until such a time when the proper psychiatric assessment of their situation is done.”

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), through its Deputy National Publicity Secretary Ibrahim Abdullahi, has launched back at the APC insisting that the Tinubu’s academic records released by Chicago State University to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had vindicated its position.

Abdullahi claimed that the CSU records indicated that APC’s President Tinubu presented conflicting documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and vowed that the relevant documents would be presented before the Supreme Court to prove the PDP and Atiku’s case against him.

Applauded for fighting a course that without him no one would have surmounted the courage to embark on in finally getting Nigerians to the bottom of the Tinubu’s Chicago State University issues that started ‘Toronto’ allegation in the past, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had filed 35 grounds of appeal at the Supreme Court to nullify the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal’s judgment of Wednesday September 6, 2023 that affirmed Tinubu’s victory as declared by INEC from the February 25 presidential election.

A statement credited to Tinubu’s aide Babatunde Ogala (SAN) had earlier reportedly boasted that the CSU documents being obtained by Atiku would not be accepted by Supreme Court, sparking questions as to whether he and his principal own the Supreme Court or the people of Nigeria own it.

As the APC was saying that in Nigeria, the United States District Court for Northern Illinois, according to our source, received the certificates of its February 25 presidential candidate and now serving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as ordered on Saturday September 30 in the appeal ruling of Justice  Nancy Maldonado and was still taking the deposition of the Tinubu’s certificates up till night, 8pm Nigerian time, same Tuesday October 3 following Monday October 2 release by the Chicago State University in compliance with the appeal ruling.

While the official report of the deposition is being anxiously awaited by Nigerians, a thorough check of the academic records released on Monday by the Chicago State University to Tinubu’s opponent, Atiku Abubakar, showed some grey areas that require answers, which were believed would all be addressed by the deposition that took place at the US district court on Tuesday.

Recall that the whole brouhaha started when Atiku’s petition saying Tinubu was not qualified to have ever been allowed to contest the election alleging certificate forgery was thrown out by the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal (PEPT).

After its case alleging Tinubu of forgery was dismissed by the presidential election tribunal, Atiku needed to move to the next and final level of the judiciary, that is the Supreme Court, and he continued his case at the US court seeking an order compelling the Chicago State University to release, officially, Tinubu’s academic records to him to back his claim and possibly include them in his appeal at the apex court.

Through his lawyers, Atiku sought these key things – an example of a CSU diploma issued in 1979; Tinubu’s diploma issued in 1979; example of a CSU diploma that “contains the same font, seal, signatures and wording” as Tinubu’s diploma issued in June 1979 and CSU documents certified and produced by Jamar Orr, an associate general counsel at CSU at the time.

The request was finally granted by Judge Jeffrey Gilbert’s court on Wednesday September 20, 2023 ordering the Chicago State University to release those academic records to Atiku within two days whether the days fell on weekend or not.

However, as the CSU was at the top level of its preparation to handover the documents to Atiku on Friday September 22, President Bola Tinubu, who at the time was supposed to be attending the 78^th Session of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA78) in New York, did all within his power to block the university from releasing his academic records.

His efforts climaxed in the emergency appeal that he filed at the United States District Court for Northern Illinois urging the Justice Nancy Maldonado-led court to delay the appeal until Monday September 25, 2023. Period between Friday September 22 and September 25 was believed the time President Tinubu hoped to meet with his US counterpart, Joe Biden, but the meeting failed to hold and he thereafter jetted out of New York to Paris in France.

On the adjourned date of Monday September 25, Tinubu, through his lawyers, prayed the court to dismiss Atiku’s request on the ground that any release of his academic records by the university would cause his person “severe and irreparable harm” because they were private to him.

The following day of Tuesday September 26, Atiku filed his response to the Tinubu’s prayer before the court telling Justice Maldonado that the appellant’s reasons for not granting his request was baseless and the court adjourned for judgment.

On Saturday September 30, Justice Maldonado, seeing no reason president of a country as huge as Nigeria would not want his academic records to be seen, ruled upholding the Judge Jeffrey Gilbert’s court judgment and ordered the Chigaco State University to go ahead and release the academic records of Tinubu within two days, appoint an administration who could come before for deposition under oath, without allowance for the President to return to her court until her order was complied with.

The US courts’ disposition to administration of justice has now put Nigeria’s courts in tight corner as Nigerians are wondering how within two weeks, both originating and appeal courts were able to dispose a case as serious as of Atiku, Tinubu and CSU, which could otherwise take five years to resolve in local courts.

No sooner had CSU released the records than the social media literarily caught fire as supporters of the two top politicians took time to share materials that they considered favourable to them.

Some Nigerian mainstream newspapers and others were also not left out as they were all caught in doing what has been described as selective reportage based on the 32-page Tinubu’s records released by the Chicago State University, whereas some especially those owned by one of the parties took time to prove that Atiku’s journey to America for evidence dead on arrival, other media chose to stand on justice that is present all that were contained in the documents as handed over.

FACT-CHECKS ON RELEASED DOCUMENTS

A close check, therefore, into the documents pointed out some of the areas regarding birthday mismatch, gender error and many questions still left unanswered but which only the report of deposition done under oath as ordered by the court would resolve.

Did Tinubu graduate from CSU?

Documents handed over to Atiku Abubakar showed Tinubu’s admission records and a letter dated 27 June 2022 confirming that “he” attended the university from August 1977 to June 1979 majoring in accounting. The letter said Tinubu was awarded Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Honours on 22 June 1979.

Certificate issued

Meticulously checked, the documents showed that the certificate Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is different from the certificates CSU issued to its graduands in 1979. Tinubu, who had previously claimed to have lost his original certificates, presented a replacement of his CSU diploma to INEC.

Certificate with INEC

Only at the Supreme Court details of the certificate Tinubu submitted to INEC could be unraveled as doing that was not within our capacity writing this report. However, Atiku Abubakar’s camp, which has been involved in the cases room the beginning and has seen what is with INEC, says what Chicago State University handed over to Atiku is different from what Tinubu submitted to INEC.

Tinubu’s claim and APC’s grouse

Tinubu, in a video circulated recently, shortly before the US court ruling, had boasted that he did not just graduate from Chicago State University with many honours but also that he had first class in accounting. APC, from the comments of its National Publicity Director Bala Ibrahim, only pointed to the fact that CSU affirmed that Tinubu graduated from the university and that the Tinubu on its certificate is not a woman. The ruling party did not answer many of the questions regarding the claims in the CSU’s letter dated 27 June 2022 confirming that “he” attended the university.

Is CSU’s Tinubu a female?

The Atiku camp says its issue is not whether Tinubu attended or graduated from CSU or not but that identity documents with which he gained admission into the university was that of a woman and that the certificate he presented to INEC were forged asides many other grey areas needed to be answered.

Ultimately, a copy of President Tinubu’s Southwest College transcript with which he gained admission into CSU identified him as female, but CSU has attributed this to a clerical error. However, there were the issues of the errors of the date and there is the matter of social security number. Also, the space for birthday was left blank in the Southwest College transcript Tinubu submitted to CSU.

Issue of gaps in college certificates

Tinubu, who applied to Southwest College for an associate degree in 1975, claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos, and presented a 1970 GCE A-level result. Whereas, Government College, Lagos, was established in 1974 by the administration of Brig. General Mobolaji Johnson.

The birthday mismatch

In his documents to INEC, Tinubu said he was born on March 29, 1952. This is his known date of birth, at least from the yearly colloquium he organised consistently until he got elected into the highest office in the land. However, in the record released by Chicago State University on Monday October 2, Tinubu was said to have been born on March 29, 1954, a clear gap of two years.