US Court Rejects Tinubu’s Application, Affirms Jurisdiction in Atiku Case for Chicago University Records

The Eastern Division of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois says it has jurisdiction in the case brought by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar to compel Chicago State University (CSU) to produce critical documents relating to Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

 

Tinubu, the current President of Nigeria, who ran for President on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on February 25, has filed an application for the court to dismiss Atiku Abubakar’s request to obtain his academic records

 

Read Also Nigeria’s reserve is $3.7b, not $33.8b claimed by CBN – JP Morgan

 

On November 9, 2022, several months before the Presidential elections, one Mr. Mike Enahoro-Ebah, described as a “Human Rights Defender and Public Interest Litigator” in Abuja, Nigeria, initiated proceedings against Mr. Tinubu by filing a “Direct Criminal Complaint” in the Chief Magistrate Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

 

Mr. Enahoro-Ebah alleged in his complaint that Mr. Tinubu filed a “Affidavit of Personal Particulars” with INEC in June 2022 as part of the required filing to run for President, which included a forged CSU diploma dated June 22, 1979 and other information inconsistent with the CSU documents.

 

Pay Attention To Nigerian Army Brigadier General Slumps and Dies During 2023 Physical Training (photo)

 

“Mr. Enahoro-Ebah stated that after Mr. Tinubu made his INEC filing, Mr. Enahoro-Ebah obtained a subpoena from the Circuit Court of Cook County, dated August 11, 2022, and served it on CSU,” according to court papers filed by Atiku in the US court on August 2, 2023, to support the allegations.

 

In response to the subpoena, CSU’s Registrar, Mr. Caleb Westberg, wrote to Mr. Enahoro-Ebah’s Chicago counsel, Mr. Matthew J. Kowals, on September 22, 2022, informing Mr. Kowals that “[t]he enclosed documentation is all the records we have for Bola E. Tinubu.”

 

Read Also Dollar to Naira Black Market Exchange Rate Today [AbokiFX]

 

“The documents that accompanied Mr. Westberg’s letter, according to the complaint, included a CSU diploma issued to Mr. Tinubu on June 27, 1979.” The alleged June 27 diploma issued by CSU to Mr. Kowals and the alleged June 22 diploma issued by Mr. Tinubu to INEC are very different documents. The documents differ not only in date but also in seals, fonts, and language.

 

The diploma from June 22 contains grammatical errors that the diploma from June 27 does not. They are also signed by various people who are ostensibly CSU officials.

 

Read Also Tinubu Will Lift 133M Nigerians Out of Poverty – Humanitarian Minister, Betta Edu

 

The June 22 diploma bears three signatures, one of which purports to be that of CSU President Dr. Elnora Daniel. On the June 22 diploma, the other two signatures are illegible.

 

“In comparison, the June 27 diploma has only two signatures. They purport to be Dr. Daniel’s signature as President of CSU and Dr. Niva Lubin’s signature as Chairperson of the Board of Trustees. Compare

 

“In his complaint, Mr. Enahoro-Ebah claims that the June 27 diploma issued by CSU to Mr. Kowals is genuine, and that the June 22 diploma issued to INEC by Bola  is a forgery.”

 

However, Applicant’s staff recently conducted additional research into the names of CSU officials with legible signatures on both diplomas: Dr. Daniel (whose signature appears on both the June 22 and June 27 diplomas) and Dr. Lubin (whose signature appears only on the June 27 diploma).

 

According to public records, Dr. Daniel and Dr. Lubin did not join CSU until the late 1990s, nearly two decades after CSU allegedly awarded Mr. Tinubu the June 22 and/or June 27 diplomas.

As a result, the applicant’s research calls into question the authenticity of both the June 22 and June 27 diplomas.

In his complaint, Mr. Enahoro-Ebah alleged the following additional discrepancies between the information provided by Mr. Tinubu to INEC and the documents produced by CSU to Mr. Enahoro-Ebah: “According to documents produced by CSU, the “Bola Tinubu” who attended CSU was a U.S. citizen, while in the information provided to INEC, Mr. Tinubu states that he has always been solely a Nigerian citizen and has never acquired the citizenship of any other country. According to CSU documents, the “Bola Tinubu” who attended CSU was born in 1954, whereas Mr. Tinubu was born in 1952, according to INEC information.

 

“According to documents produced by CSU, the “Bola Tinubu” who applied to CSU submitted a prior transcript from Southwest College that identified “Bola Tinubu” as “female.” According to the documents produced by CSU, the “Bola Tinubu” who attended CSU claimed to have graduated from Government College, Lagos, in 1970, whereas Mr. Tinubu makes no mention of having attended Government College in the information provided to INEC.

 

In light of the foregoing, Atiku petitioned the Court for an order granting him leave to compel CSU to release and verify the authenticity of documents purportedly issued to Tinubu by the university.

According to court documents, the Court has established that it has jurisdiction over this matter under US law, which “authorises any “interested person” to request that a United States District Court order the discovery of documents and testimony for use in a foreign proceeding from persons who “reside[] or [are] found” within its District.”

According to the court, Atiku has met all statutory requirements because he is a “interested person,” and the respondent, CSU, is a public university established and existing under Illinois law, with its main campus and offices in Chicago.

After meeting all requirements, the court stated that it will not hesitate to grant Atiku’s prayers.