U.S court grants Atiku access to Tinubu’s Chicago varsity credentials, orders release within 2 days

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the February 25, 2023 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has beaten the 14-day statutory deadline to secure critical academic credentials of President Bola Tinubu from the Chicago State University (CSU) to back his appeal at the Supreme Court.

Alhaji Atiku faced a deadline of 14 days to acquire relevant documents challenging President Tinubu’s election in his suit before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, Eastern Division, presided over by Judge Jeffrey Gilbert.

Atiku had sought the academic credentials of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the February presidential election from the Chicago State University, which the latter had declined citing confidentiality reasons.

The former Vice President had needed the documents to back his allegation of perjury and ineligibility against the Tinubu’s declaration as winner of the February 25 election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 1, 2023.

Already, Atiku had, Tuesday, filed his appeal at the Supreme Court predicated on 35 grounds, as he insisted that the PEPT committed a grave error and miscarriage of justice in its findings and conclusion in its petition challenging INEC’s declaration of Tinubu as President.

The notice of appeal also prayed the Supreme Court to overturn the PEPT’s findings and conclusions, claiming that they do not accurately reflect the facts of his case.

According to Atiku, the PEPT erred in law when it refused to nullify the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, on the grounds of non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022, when evidence before it showed that INEC conducted the election on the basis of grave and gross misrepresentation, in violation of the principles of the Electoral Act 2022, based on the doctrine of legitimate expectation.

Meanwhile, delivering final judgement, late Tuesday night (Nigerian time), Judge Jeffrey Gilbert of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, Eastern Division, ordered the CSU to release President Tinubu’s records to Atiku within two days of the ruling and also certify the documents’ authenticity under oath.

Judge Gilbert also ordered a deposition of designated CSU officials within two days after the records have been released, noting further that the process can be conducted during the weekend if necessary.

“For all of the reasons discussed above, Atiku Abubakar’s application pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782 for an order directing discovery from Chicago State University for use in a foreign proceeding [ECF No. 1] is granted,” Mr Gilbert ruled. “Respondent CSU shall produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to requests for production Nos. 1 through 4 (as narrowed by the court) in applicant subpoena within two days of the entry of this memorandum opinion and order.

“The deposition of respondent’s corporate designee shall proceed within two days of the production of documents. The parties can modify the dates set by the court by mutual agreement. Given the tight time frame under which the parties are operating, the deposition can, if necessary, occur on a non-weekday,” the court ruled.

With this ruling, Atiku is expected to now tender all evidence backing his allegation of perjury and ineligibility against Tinubu as he seeks to disqualify the APC candidate from election.

Atiku had on August 2 filed an application for the court to order CSU to produce documents relating to Tinubu, as well as leave to get the school’s administrators to authenticate any documents submitted under oath.

“Section 137 (1)(j) of the Nigerian Constitution (amended in 2010) specifically stated that no one would be legitimately elected president of Nigeria if the person has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission,” Atiku’s originating summons read in part.

According to Atiku’s lawyer, Angela Liu, Tinubu’s certificate from the CSU is allegedly filled with discrepancies beginning with the signatories which carries those of the university’s officials who were not staff of the institution as at the time of the issuance of the document.

This in addition to the female designation of Tinubu, instead of male as it appeared on the credentials, while the documents also carried different dates.

The misleading irregularities prompted Abubakar to file the suit to compel CSU to produce records relating to Tinubu and make its top officials available for deposition to certify the produced records, according to the Nigerian opposition leader’s lawyers.

During a hearing on the matter on September 12, the CSU’s lawyer Michael Hayes, said the school could not authenticate Tinubu’s certificate if asked under oath, although he said Tinubu attended the school and graduated in 1979.

Tinubu’s lawyers, led by Christopher Carmichael, argued that the court should not grant Abubakar’s application because it was a frivolous expedition aimed at soiling the Nigerian president’s image.

Tinubu’s lawyers also argued that Nigerian Supreme Court would not accept fresh evidence that was not produced during the tribunal proceeding.

 Judge Gilbert then ruled that courts across the U.S. have traditionally taken a broad and liberal view in granting applications under Section 1782, a statute that allows the release of documents and evidence domiciled in the U.S. to be obtained and used in a foreign proceeding, as he adjourned hearing till a later date to be communicated to the parties, after requesting them to submit to him further evidence supporting their case.

Ms Liu, confirmed that the Chicago State University provided two similar certificates indicating that Tinubu attended its institution.

Liu said while the first certificate was signed by three people, the other one was signed by two people.

Liu also said that while one document asserts that Tinubu was issued the certificate on June 22, 1979, another suggests that the president received the degree on June 27, 1979.

“The document marked ‘A’ is the certificate submitted by Tinubu to INEC. This certificate is in every material respect, exactly the same as the document marked ‘B’ except for the following.

“Document ‘A’ is signed by at least 3 people whereas ‘B’ is signed by only 2 people.

“The document marked ‘E’ states that Tinubu was issued a certificate on 22nd June 1979 but then proceeded to forward a copy of a certificate (‘B’) dated 27th June 1979. Please note that ‘A’ is actually dated 22nd June 1979, but this document did not emanate from CSU. Only ‘B’ did.

“It is clear that either ‘A’ or ‘B’ is fake (if not both). You cannot have two certificates issued by the same university, to the same person, for the same course of study, but issued on different dates and signed by two different sets of people.

“The documents ‘A’ and ‘B’ both state that Tinubu graduated with a BSc in ‘Business AND Administration’, whereas document ‘E’ (which came from CSU) states that he graduated with a BSc in ‘Business Administration’, Liu said.

Continuin, the lawyer said CSU’s website reads: “The College of Business offers a contemporary business program leading to a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration or Masters in Business Administration (MBA)”, adding that ‘nowhere is there any reference to ‘business and administration’ throughout the website.”

“It is not possible for Elnora D. Daniel to be among those who signed both certificates because she was only the president of the university between 1998 and 2008.

“She was neither president of the university in 1979 – when the certificate was purportedly issued – nor was she president in 2022, when the replacement certificates were issued,” she said.

The lawyer also expressed dismay that both certificates bear different letter fonts and logos of the university.

According to filings by Oluwole Afolabi and Christopher Carmichael, counsels to Tinubu, an unidentified clerk of the university made the error about the date the school stated on his recently-issued certificate, thereby creating ‘the appearance of differences.’

It would be recalled that during the just-concluded PEPT hearings on September 6, which affirmed Tinubu as winner after dismissing all charges by petitioners (LP/Peter Obi, PDP/Atiku, and the APM), the justices had knocked down Tinubu’s perjury on technical grounds.

The PEPT justices further faulted Atiku’s petition on the ground that it introduced several facts and allegations in unlawful ways that caught the respondents unaware adding that ‘the tactic employed was unfair and made him clever by half.’

Among the offending new facts said to have been wrongfully introduced by Atiku were the allegations of a criminal conviction, certificate forgery, and dual citizenship of Guinea made against Tinubu outside the mode of filing a petition.

Justice Stephen Jonah Adah who read another ruling on objections against the petition expunged several documents tendered by Atiku on the ground that the exhibits were made during the pendency of the petition.

Also, the evidence of several key witnesses of Atiku were expunged from the Court record having been made in manners not known to law.

The Tribunal held that the wrongful mode adopted by the PDP’s presidential candidate in the construction of the petition made several paragraphs of the petition table for striking out for want of merit.