The academic records of President Bola Tinubu have been made available to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar by Chicago State University in the United States of America.
In accordance with the directive of a United States District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, the CSU provided the records to Atiku on Monday.
An American district judge rejected the President’s protest and ordered the CSU to disclose Tinubu’s academic record.
For the aforementioned grounds, the judge overruled President Tinubu’s objections to Magistrate Judge Gilbert’s suggested decision and adopted it in its entirety.
Therefore, Mr. Atiku’s application is approved. The court sets an accelerated timeline for discovery completion in view of the impending Supreme Court of Nigeria deadline, which CSU indicated to the court as being October 5, 2023, and based on its claims that it is prepared to abide by the discovery demands and produce a witness.
In response to Requests for Production Nos., Respondent CSU is required to turn over all pertinent, non-privileged documents. By 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, CSU’s corporate designee’s Rule 30(b)(6) deposition must be finished. The court will not extend or change these dates because the Supreme Court of Nigeria’s filing deadline is October 5, 2023.
The CSU addressed Atiku’s four requests in documents that went viral late on Monday night.
The US university responded to Atiku’s demand for “A true and correct copy of any diploma issued by CSU in 1979 to Mr. Tinubu” by saying that it “does not, in the ordinary course, keep copies of student diplomas and, after the diligent search, cannot locate a copy of the original diploma it prepared for Mr. Tinubu in 1979.” As a result, the university said it “has no documents responsive to this request.”
Atiku plans to utilise the CSU academic record in his Supreme Court appeal, where he is contesting Tinubu’s victory in the election for president on February 25.
However, Tinubu’s legal counsel has contended that the records would be useless in court.
