In a very shocking twist of events, President Bola Tinubu has on Monday, finally agreed that a Federal Judge in the United States of America, USA, approve for the Chicago State University, CSU, to release only his University Certificate to the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku A however, pleaded with Judge, Nancy Maldonado, to block all other details, especially the gender and admission records, among others, from being accessed by Atiku and the PDP, amid earlier controversies that showed that the gender on his said records was female.
President Tinubu’s prayers came as part of the ongoing legal battle unfolding at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, in Chicago, as brought by Atiku.
President Tinubu’s acceptance that his Certificate finally be released, came after he narrowly escaped full disclosure on September 21, by pleading severe harm to his life, in order to obtain a stay of a Magistrate Judge’s order on September 19.
“There is harm in allowing discovery on issues and documents outside the Diploma”, his Lawyers had said in their full briefing to the Court seeking a review of Judge Jeffrey Gilbert’s order by Ms. Maldonado, a District Judge.
The identity of who was admitted into Chicago State University, in the 1970s, has been a very controversial issue after College transcripts emerged that indicated the School admitted a female Bola Tinubu from South-West College Chicago, in 1977.
Whereas President Tinubu’s Lawyers, led by Victor Henderson and Christopher Carmichael, insisted that the documents Atiku sought would not be admissible at the Supreme Court of Nigeria, they nonetheless appeared to anticipate the potential for an unfavourable ruling and consequently gave the Judge an alternative direction of giving only an order for the School to certify strictly the Certificate the President tendered to run for February 25, 2023, Presidential election.
Judge Gilbert’s ruling last week, required CSU Administrators to confirm under oath whether or not the Certificate President Tinubu tendered in Nigeria was genuine.
Additionally, the Officials were mandated to show a Certificate issued to a CSU graduate in 1979, with the person’s identification redacted, and to also turn over communications relating to a letter the School issued to President Tinubu in 2022.
President Tinubu feared that allowing the deposition of CSU Officials to go forward could inflict severe, irreparable damage to his life, saying that Atiku was only on a fishing expedition to fuel online conspiracy theories.
In today’s filing, a man who identified himself as Olajide Adeniji, submitted an affidavit saying that he attended the CSU with President Tinubu from 1977 to 1979.
More news later…
