Judge Nancy Maldonado of the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago has ruled that Chicago State University (CSU) should release all documents about Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria’s main opposition party.
Judge Nancy Maldonado in the ruling, ordered that all relevant and non-privileged documents of President Tinubu from Chicago State University should be released to Atiku as requested by the PDP Presidential Candidate. The US judge also ordered that the deposition of CSU’s cooperate designee must be completed on Monday, the 2nd of October 2023 by 5 pm max.
President Tinubu and Atiku have been at loggerheads over the discrepancies in the Nigerian leader’s CSU records, as the institution in response to a previous subpoena in 2022, released documents showing a female Bola Tinubu from South West College was admitted to the school to pursue a degree in accounting.
Also at issue was CSU’s adamant refusal to authenticate the diploma Tinubu submitted to Nigeria’s electoral body, INEC, to be genuine or falsified, which has fuelled allegations of forgery and perjury for which Mr Abubakar is seeking to void Mr Tinubu’s election victory at Nigeria’s Supreme Court.
Further confusing Atiku were the signatures on the diploma that Mr Tinubu submitted to INEC, which were those of two women, Elnora Daniel and Niva Lubin who joined CSU in 1998 and 1996, nearly 20 years after the president graduated in 1979.
“The June 22 diploma has indicia of forgery,” Angela Liu, the U.S. attorney representing Abubakar, told the court on Wednesday.
Recall on September 20, 2023, another US Judge Jeffrey Gilbert had ordered CSU to release Tinubu’s records but the Nigerian President begged Ms Maldonado to delay the order’s enforcement, pleading severe and irreparable damage to his life.
The presidential elections petitions tribunal upheld Tinubu’s election victory on September 6. However, Atiku strongly believes the decision was deeply flawed and a miscarriage of justice, leading him to file an appeal at the nation’s Supreme Court where he plans to use the CSU records to show the president may have committed forgery and perjury, two serious allegations that, if proven, would not only result in Tinubu’s dismissal but also could permanently dent his political career.