Mr. Tinubu is making frantic efforts to hide his academic records from being made public. Abubakar Atiku has instituted a case in the Northern District Court of Illinois in the USA, where he is seeking Mr. Tinubu’s academic records from the Chicago State University (CSU) via a Document Subpoena and a Deposition Subpoena.
Mr. Tinubu’s legal team submitted their final address to the court yesterday 23/09/22, where they prayed the court to block Atiku’s request to see Tinubu’s academic records. Atiku’s legal team has until 9th of September to file their own final address before the same US court.
It should be noted that the Chicago State University’s B.Sc certificate is the ONLY academic qualification remaining for Mr. Tinubu, having recanted his earlier claims (made on oath over the past three decades) that he attended St. John’s Anglican School Aroloya for primary school education; Government College Ibadan for secondary school education; and Richard Dailey school in USA for college education. It would appear that the aforementioned qualifications were renounced by Mr. Tinubu because they were either non-existent or fraudulently obtained. (Check online for Mr. Tinubu’s INEC presidential nomination form to see the only qualification he filled in it).
The closing argument submitted by Mr. Tinubu’s lawyers yesterday can be summarized as an attempt to defend the indefensible. It appears rather weak and unconvincing with respect to matters of law and facts.
In their closing argument, Mr. Tinubu’s lawyers admitted themselves that the CSU officially issued a CTC of Mr. Tinubu’s certificate to one Mr. Enahoro Ebah but they contended that the certificate issued to Mr. Ebah was full of errors, which makes it remarkably different from the CSU certificate that Mr. Tinubu submitted to INEC. The question is – why is it Mr. Tinubu’s lawyers speaking for the CSU regarding the errors when the CSU is the subject matter of Atiku subpoenas, and can speak for itself.
.
The way things stand now, there are three different certificates for the same Mr. Tinubu – a) the one submitted by him alongside his INEC form, which he claimed was issued to him by the university on graduation; b) a second CTC of his certificate that was officially obtained by the said Enahoro Ebah via a subpoena in the US; and c) yet another CTC of his certificate that was submitted to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal by Wole Olanipekun & Co, also purported by Olanipekun to have been issued by the same CSU.
By filing a Deposition Subpoena, which is “a court order requiring a person who is not a party to a lawsuit to provide records and/or appear at a deposition to answer questions asked by one party in a lawsuit”, Atiku is praying the US court to compel the appearance of CSU officials in court to identify the exact certificate that was issued by them to Mr. Tinubu.
Furthermore, if Atiku’s prayer under the second subpoena (Documents Subpoena) is granted by the US court, the CSU will be compelled to release all the available documents on Mr. Tinubu, which may expose Mr. Tinubu’s suspected identity theft crime of using the WAEC results of a deceased woman named Bola A. Tinubu, to secure admission into the CSU.
Mr. Tinubu’s real name is Yekini Amoda Ogunlere from Osun State. This ongoing legal battle in the US, where he is using very expensive international lawyers to block access to his academic records, is to prevent the emergence of credible evidence that will expose the identity theft. Why would a person wanting to occupy the office of President be hiding his academic records,, something that should ordinarily be flaunted as a mark of academic accomplishment.
10. Atiku must have been motivated by Mr. Tinubu’s renunciation of his primary, secondary and college attendance/certificates to raise questions as to how he came about a university degree. A US university will not grant admission without some entry level qualification(s). If Atiku is able to prove in court that Mr. Tinubu forged his way into the CSU, he can then write to the Senate of the university to strip him of the B.Sc degree that he obtained through deceit.
The risk for Mr. Tinubu is that, if the US court determines that the CSU certificate was forged, and knowing that the same certificate was earlier submitted to INEC, it will render Mr. Tinubu academically naked and trigger his automatic disqualification by the Nigerian Courts in line with section 66 of the Constitution.
A possible prosecution of immunity-stripped private citizen Tinubu cannot be foreclosed. The same fate may befall the chairman and other complicit senior executives of INEC for their role in sabotaging the 2023 presidential election.
The Atiku team has until Sept 9th to make their own final submission, after which the Northern District Court of Illinois will make a determination whether or not to order the CSU to release the academic records and admission documents of Mr. Tinubu.
It looks like this court matter is fast turning into a sticky situation for Mr. Tinubu. We should continue to monitor developments in this US court with keen interest.
