Atiku withdraws one case, files another over Tinubu’s alleged certificate theft
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has clarified he withdrew an earlier case against Bola Tinubu in the Unites States because he has filed a new one against the President over his disputed certificate from Chicago State University (CSU).
A Circuit Court of Cook County sitting in Illinois County last week struck out the first suit requesting Tinubu’s academic records from CSU because Atiku withdrew that case having filed another suit in a higher court on the same matter.
Atiku explained through his Communication Assistant Phrank Shaibu that he filed the new litigation at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Shaibu said the new lawsuit is marked No. 23-5099 (N. D. III.).
Atiku and Peter Obi of the Labour (LP) are challenging the election of Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) which they asked to sack Tinubu from the Villa on several grounds.
Tinubu is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Atiku based one of his grounds for Tinubu’s disqualification on the allegation he forged the CSU degree he claimed to have obtained in Bachelor of Science in business administration.
Atiku argued at the PEPC that
- The purported degree certificate of [Tinubu] allegedly acquired at Chicago State University did not belong to him but to a female (F) described as “F” in the certificate bearing the name Bola Tinubu.
- The owner of the certificate filled in her admission forms her name as Bola A. Tinubu, that she is a female (F), was born in 1954, and attended Government College, Lagos.
- Tinubu, by swearing on oath that he owns the certificate, engaged in perjury, because he is a man, who claims to have been born in 1952, and had previously submitted forms to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) where he claimed to have attended Government College, Ibadan.
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Discrepancies in Tinubu’s educational claims
“Atiku Abubakar only withdrew the case before a Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois County, United States of America because he is pursuing the same matter in a higher court and he wanted to avoid abuse of court processes. So, this is just the beginning,” Shaibu said in a statement, per reporting by The PUNCH.
He argued that Tinubu’s academic records from primary school to university remain questionable, hence his failure to identify a single former classmate of his.
“In the past weeks, Nigerians have been watching the ongoing ministerial screening at the Senate where nominees have been made to reveal their primary, secondary and university history. Some of the ministerial nominees were even classmates with the Senators screening them.
“However, the man who nominated them has no educational history. He has no primary school, secondary school or university classmates. This is because he has no classmates. He actually fell from the sky.
“In recent years, past Presidents have invited their former classmates to Aso Rock Villa. Even President Muhammadu Buhari hosted his classmates from Katsina Middle School.
“But who did Bola Tinubu invite to the Presidential Villa? Governors from 1999 set.”