By OUR REPORTER with agencies
Emerging reports on Wednesday showed that a US court adjourned ruling on a subpoena application for Mr. Bola Tinubu’s records from Chicago State University (CSU).
According to the media reports, the court adjourned after the University denied knowledge of a certificate Tinubu had submitted to the Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He had submitted Chicago State University (CSU)’s certificate while filling the forms to contest the February 25, 2023 general elections as presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
It was reported on Sunday that a federal court in the United States was racing to complete Atiku Abubakar’s request to subpoena the Chicago State University (CSU) for Bola Tinubu’s academic records after learning that Mr Abubakar has only 14 days to appeal the judgement of the election petitions tribunal at the Supreme Court of Nigeria using the requested records.
Specifically, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago reportedly moved up the date for in-person arguments of the lawyers of Messrs Abubakar, Tinubu and CSU from September 15 to September 12, citing “exigent circumstances” of the request.
CSU lawyer Michael Hayes, at the session this week, told the court that the school was not in a position to authenticate Tinubu’s certificate as either fake or genuine. He said that the school’s administrators would not be able to certify the certificate because they “just don’t know” where Tinubu obtained it or how.
Hayes also admitted that there were several contradictions in Tinubu’s certificate, including the date it was issued and the name of the school president at the time.
“Is the diploma authentic or is it a forgery? My client can’t answer yes to either of those questions,” Mr Hayes said at the hearing in Chicago in the lawsuit brought by Atiku Abubakar, Mr Tinubu’s main challenger and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the February 25 presidential election.
Atiku Abubakar filed the suit to compel CSU to produce records relating to Tinubu and make its top officials available for deposition to certify the produced records.
Abubakar’s lawyers said the documents and depositions are being sought for use in the Nigerian Supreme Court, where the final battle over Tinubu’s election is now headed.
Alexandre de Gramont, who appeared in court for Mr Abubakar, said, “Your Honour, we don’t know whether the Nigerian Supreme Court would be receptive to the new evidence or not, but we just want to be able to present the new evidence to them from CSU,” Mr de Gramont said.
“We already have them (the documents), what we are seeking is CSU’s authentication or their explanation for some of the discrepancies.”
Tinubu’s lawyers, represented via telephone conference by Christopher Carmichael, said Abubakar was on a “fishing expedition.” They noted that the previous statements of CSU to the effect that Tinubu graduated from the school were enough.
Carmichael said there was no need to produce further evidence or place the school’s officials under oath to speak to the authenticity of Tinubu’s certificate. He said the proceeding would only fuel online trolls because the Supreme Court won’t accept new evidence even if produced.
Bola Tinubu submitted a certificate to INEC on June 17, 2022, claiming it was issued in 1979 and signed by Elnora Daniel. However, it was discovered that Ms. Daniel did not enroll at CSU until 1998, 19 years after Mr. Tinubu was supposed to have graduated.
Furthermore, she left the school in 2008 due to a financial mismanagement scandal, which occurred 14 years before June 2022 when CSU issued another certificate in Mr. Tinubu’s name. This issuance was prompted by a subpoena from a Nigerian lawyer who had raised questions about Mr. Tinubu’s educational background.
These contradictions and other discrepancies led Mr. Abubakar to file a lawsuit compelling CSU to provide records related to Mr. Tinubu’s educational history.
The DEFENDER had sought to confirm whether President Bola Tinubu was aware of this week’s court sitting in the US but our enquiry, sent to one of his media aides, was yet to be responded to as at the time of filing this report.
The was to also extract Tinubu’s reaction through the aide. Our US source also did not confirm the report and Atiku, owner of the application has chosen not to speak on the case in court in other land as he is busy with process of filing his appeal, to which the US case isvrelevant, at the Supreme Court here in Nigeria.
