Atiku filed a suit, seeking to subpoena the university but was said to have, before the date of hearing, withdrawn the case before the court.
By Jeffrey Agbo
A Circuit Court of Cook County sitting in Illinois County, USA has struck out a suit filed by Nigeria’s former Vice President Atiku Abubakar requesting President Bola Tinubu’s academic records from the Chicago State University.
During the campaigns in 2022, Tinubu stated that he had a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with honours.
There were doubts despite Beverly Poindexter, who is in charge of official transcript requests, enrolment and degree verification at the Office of the Registrar of the university, affirming Tinubu’s comment.
Recently, Atiku filed a suit, seeking to subpoena the university but was said to have, before the date of hearing, withdrawn the case before the court.
According to the Circuit Court papers dated July 31, and obtained by the media on Sunday, Judge Patrick Heneghan dismissed the case without prejudice.
In the judgment, the judge held that the “petitioner’s subpoena in this case is withdrawn and thus Chicago State University will not be deposed pursuant to the subpoena in this case.”
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Ruling on the matter which had Atiku as the petitioner and CSU as the respondent, Justice Heneghan said the case was dismissed without prejudice and resolves all matters pending before the court.
Meanwhile, a top-rated business litigation attorney in Chicago, Victor Henderson, has said citizens in the State of Illinois have known Tinubu for decades as a ‘distinguished graduate of Chicago State University and a well-respected international figure in the US.
In a press statement dated August 2, 2023, Henderson said, “Despite Tinubu’s prominence, Atiku Abubakar and a few of his followers have attempted to illegally access the President’s confidential educational records by filing an improper lawsuit without basic due process or even the simple decency of asking the President himself to release his records.
“The goal of Abubakar and others, of course, is to stain the President’s character and reputation and to try to steal an election that they lost.
“The good news for the President and his supporters is that the court dismissed the lawsuit that Abubakar improperly filed to get access to the President’s records.
“In addition, a leading Chicago State official recently confirmed, again, that the President is a long-time and distinguished alumnus of the university,” part of the statement read.