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A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the eagerly awaited handover of Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu’s academic records, to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s 2023 Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, by the Chicago State University.
This development comes in the wake of a legal battle surrounding the authenticity of Tinubu’s academic qualifications.
Atiku had initiated this legal action in the US District Court in Northern Illinois to compel the university to release Tinubu’s academic records, citing their importance in his legal challenge against the results of the February 25 presidential election.
He argued that the documents were needed for use in Nigerian courts to support his claim that Tinubu had forged a certificate purportedly obtained from CSU in 1979, which he submitted to Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for the 2023 presidential election.
Tinubu’s legal team, represented by his New York-based lawyer, Oluwole Afolabi, raised two primary objections.
Firstly, they contended that Tinubu’s academic records were not useful in Nigerian courts, as they claimed that the Nigerian election proceedings and courts had been unreceptive to such discoveries.
Secondly, he argued that Atiku’s request was overly intrusive, allowing him to embark on a fishing expedition into Tinubu’s private, confidential, and protected educational records.
In response, the former vice president filed a fresh response in Chicago, Illinois, calling for the court to overrule Tinubu’s request entirely.
Award-winning investigative journalist David Hundeyin, claimed earlier today that Tinubu’s lawyers had approached three appeal courts in the United States on Monday, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
Hundeyin said they later requested a delay in the deposition scheduled for tomorrow, shifting it from 10 am to 12 noon in an attempt to buy more time, but Atiku’s legal team firmly rejected this request.
The United States District Court in the Northern District of Illinois had previously ruled in favor of Atiku, and ordered Chicago State University to release President Bola Tinubu’s academic records by Monday.
Judge Nancy Maldonado of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago affirmed the lower federal magistrate judge’s decision to release the documents and set a deadline for Monday, October 2.
She stated, “The Court, therefore, grants Mr. Abubakar’s application under 28 U.S.C. § 1782,” noting that CSU did not object to Judge Jeffery Gilbert’s decision to make the academic records public.
The Judge ruled that Atiku’s interest outweighed any intrusion on Tinubu’s privacy regarding his educational records.
The court further mandated, “Respondent CSU is directed to produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to Requests for Production Nos. 1 through 4, in Mr. Abubakar’s subpoena, by 12:00 p.m. (noon) CDT, on Monday, October 2, 2023.
“The Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of CSU’s corporate designee must be completed by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.”
The academic records have reportedly now been released, and we can expect them to be made public shortly as the development is under close scrutiny by Nigerians.
Lawyer and cybersecurity expert, Johnbull Igwe, tweeted, “there is a national excitement right now in Nigeria as Atiku’s lawyers have received Tinubu’s CSU school documents, and they are being sorted out”.