President Bola Tinubu has finally consented to a federal judge in the United States of America releasing only his university certificate to his political opponent, Atiku Abubakar.
However, the president has implored Judge Nancy Maldonado to prevent access to all other details, particularly gender and admission records, by Atiku and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Tinubu’s request was made on Monday as part of the ongoing legal battle at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.
The case was initiated by Abubakar, who has been on a judicial quest to prove that Tinubu is ineligible to hold the position of Nigerian president, despite being elected in February 2023.
Tinubu secured victory in the election with 36 percent of the votes, after a fallout between Abubakar and his running mate Peter Obi. The split in their potential votes paved the way for Tinubu’s narrow triumph on February 25th.
Tinubu’s acceptance of the release of his certificate came after narrowly avoiding full disclosure on September 21st, by citing severe harm to his life in order to obtain a stay of a magistrate judge’s order on September 19th.
“There is harm in allowing discovery on issues and documents outside the diploma,” stated Mr. Tinubu’s legal team in their petition to the court, seeking a review of Judge Jeffrey Gilbert’s order by Ms. Maldonado, a district judge.
The college admissions issue surrounding Tinubu’s identity at Chicago State University in the 1970s has been a contentious topic, particularly after the emergence of college transcripts that indicated the admission of a female student named Bola Tinubu from Southwest College Chicago in 1977.
Although Tinubu’s lawyers, led by Victor Henderson and Christopher Carmichael, assert that the documents Abubakar is seeking are inadmissible in the Supreme Court, they nevertheless appear to anticipate the possibility of an unfavorable ruling. Consequently, they have proposed an alternative course of action, which involves strictly certifying the certificate Tinubu submitted to run for election.
Gilbert’s ruling last week compelled CSU administrators to confirm, under oath, whether or not the certificate Tinubu submitted in Nigeria was genuine.
In addition, the officials were required to present a certificate issued to a CSU graduate in 1979, with the individual’s identification redacted, and to also hand over any communications related to a letter the school issued to Mr. Tinubu in 2022.
Tinubu fears that allowing the deposition of CSU officials to proceed could cause severe and irreparable damage to his life, asserting that Abubakar is merely on a fishing expedition to fuel online conspiracy theories.
In a filing submitted today, a man who identified himself as Olajide Adeniji submitted an affidavit stating that he attended school with Mr. Tinubu from 1977 to 1979.
