On Tuesday, the All Progressives Congress reprimanded PDP presidential front-runner Atiku Abubakar for attempting to obtain President Bola Tinubu’s academic records from Chicago State University.
Bala Ibrahim, the APC’s national publicity director, attributed Atiku and the PDP’s behaviour to “post-election defeat disorder.”
After years of poor leadership, he alleged, Nigerians had rejected the opposition party, and he urged the former vice president to leave politics.
This is taking place as Justice Nancy Maldonado allegedly ordered the former governor of Lagos State’s certificates to be sent to the US District Court for Northern Illinois.
In accordance with the court’s order, CSU released the documents on Monday, but as of 8 p.m. Nigerian time on Tuesday, the court was still accepting depositions of Tinubu’s certificates.
Following requests from former vice president Atiku, the PDP candidate in the February 25, 2023, presidential election, the Chicago State University provided the President’s academic records.
On September 19, Magistrate Jeffrey Gilbert granted Atiku’s request for the release of Tinubu’s academic records; however, the President appealed the decision.
In their request for a review of the decision, Tinubu’s attorneys maintained that the records would not be relevant in Atiku’s Supreme Court case against Tinubu.
The CSU was required to make the president’s academic records public despite Tinubu’s protests, which were overruled by Justice Nancy Maldonado, a federal judge.
The CSU addressed Atiku’s four requests in documents that went viral late on Monday night.
The American university stated in response to Atiku’s initial request for “A true and correct copy of any diploma for a Bachelor of Science degree issued by CSU in 1979,” “The documents responsive to this request which CSU, after diligent search, has been able to locate are produced herewith and Bates labelled CSU 0001 through CSU 0007.” Due to privacy concerns, the names of the students are redacted on these diplomas.
The university responded to the second request with the following statement: “CSU 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, therefore, has no documents responsive to this request.”
In response to the third request for copies of diplomas issued by CSU other than Tinubu that were true and accurate copies and had the same font, seal, signatures, and wording, the CSU stated, “The documents responsive to this request which CSU, after diligent search, has been able to locate are produced herewith and Bates labelled CSU 0008 through CSU 0010.
The names of the students have been obscured on these diplomas due to privacy concerns. In addition, the CSU is generating Bates with the designations CSU 0011 and CSU 0012, diplomas created for other CSU students (with their names withheld for privacy), which are formatted in the same way as Tinubu’s replacement diploma dated June 27, 1997.
Additionally, the CSU stated in response to Atiku’s fourth request for “true and correct copies of any CSU documents relating to Tinubu’s that were certified by Jamar C. Orr, Esq., including without limitation, the documents in Exhibit D to the Uwais Declaration, and all communications to or from CSU concerning the certification of such documents by Jamar C. Orr, Esq., during the period of August 1, 2022 to August 1, 2023,”
Babatunde Ogala, SAN, the coordinator of the Tinubu Presidential Legal Team, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, but the APC’s director of public relations chastised Atiku for going to such lengths in response to his electoral defeat.
He remarked, “We have said it time and time again that the PDP and Atiku have ‘defeat disorder syndrome.’ The next step for them is to submit a new application to the court requesting information about Tinubu’s attendance at Chicago State University lectures.
There is simply nothing they won’t dispute, even God’s decision to make Tinubu. They have a condition known as post-trauma disorder syndrome. If they do not receive treatment, they will continue to act foolish until a proper mental evaluation of their condition has been completed.
Ibrahim criticised the PDP further for refusing to concede loss and suggested that the party’s presidential candidate step down from public office.
Don’t forget that Nigerians voted them out. They filed a lawsuit after refusing to accept it. The court dismissed them. They refused and fled, only to be voted out once more.
“At the moment, they are still denying. It seems inevitable to us. The case is now closed. He advised Atiku to just swallow his pride and retire from public life.
PDP responds
The PDP argued that Tinubu’s academic record, which his alma college had made public, had supported its claim.
Ibrahim Abdullahi, the PDP’s deputy national publicity secretary, asserted that the CSU record showed the President gave the Independent National Electoral Commission contradicting paperwork.
Abdullahi made a suggestion that the Supreme Court will be given with the pertinent paperwork to support the PDP and Atiku’s case against Tinubu.
In an effort to overturn the decision of the Presidential Election Petitions Court declaring Tinubu the victor of the February presidential election, Atiku filed 35 grounds for appeal with the Supreme Court.
