Tinubu Begs Supreme Court To Reject Atiku’s CSU Evidence Of Certificate Forgery

President Bola Tinubu is pleading with the Supreme Court not to admit any fresh evidence from Atiku Abubakar, particularly the deposition of Caleb Westberg, registrar of Chicago State University (CSU), on the grounds that it was “alien” to the proceedings since it was not initially tendered at the first court of trial.

Tinubu asserted that the senior court must not encourage Abubakar’s behaviour of first filing bogus petitions and relegating the supply of evidence to buttress his claims till later. The president noted that his rival demonstrated the same behaviour at the elections petitions tribunal.

Tinubu told the Supreme Court that Atiku’s petition was mere blockbuster with thrilling suspense, hide and seek. He said Atiku “cooked-up allegations of discrepancies in his academic qualifications”.

According to President Tinubu, “the hyperbolic character of the foregoing allegations was exposed by the petition itself, which had no facts in support thereof.

“Starting from the allegation of non-qualification of the Respondent, all that the Appellants submitted to the lower court through their petition was that the 2nd Respondent (Tinubu) was at the time of the election not qualified to contest the election, not having the constitutional threshold.”

“It was at this point they rolled out their drums of cooked-up allegations of discrepancies in the 2nd Respondent’s academic qualifications, dual nationality and sundry bemusing allegations from the back door

He further urged the apex court not to countenance the evidence of forgery submitted by Mr Abubakar because it was never entered into the records or judgement of the tribunal that upheld his election victory and formed the basis of the plaintiffs’ appeal.

“Without prejudice to our objection to this issue, we submit that the arguments regarding a purported ‘Case No. 1:23-CV05009-Re: Application of Atiku for an Order Directing Discovery from Chicago State University…’ is alien to these proceedings, does not arise from the record or the judgment of the lower court and cannot be countenanced by this honourable court, and we urge the court to so hold,” the president stated.

Abubakar, after several weeks of legal back-and-forths at the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, succeeded in obtaining Tinubu’s CSU educational records.

The registrar’s deposition further revealed that despite Tinubu’s attendance and graduation from the university, the institution never issued him an original or replacement certificate.

Following Mr Westberg’s testimony, Abubakar and many Nigerians are now curious about where and how Tinubu obtained the certificate he submitted to INEC.

But the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is determined to annul Tinubu’s election victory, citing section 137(j) of the constitution, which stipulates that no person shall be eligible to be president if “he has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.”