President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has urged a federal judge in the United States to ignore records suggesting the person admitted into Chicago State University in the 1970s was a female.
In a September 11 filing before Judge Jeffrey Gilbert of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Tinubh said his Nigerian political rival Atiku Abubakar was trying to sandbag him in the ongoing case over academic documents.
One of Tinubu’s lawyers in the case, Christopher Carmichael, entered the argument on the Nigerian president’s behalf.
“It is established beyond peradventure that it is improper to sandbag one’s opponent by raising new matter in reply,” Tinubu said.
Ahead of today’s hearing, Justice Gilbert had recommended that all parties appear before the court on Tuesday afternoon amid strong indications a ruling was imminent in the matter.
According to Tinubu’s lawyers, controversies in the Southwest College record generated around Tinubu’s identity was a conspiracy theory and not the fault of the Nigerian leader.
“The quoted and referenced portion of the Nigerian court filing parrots conspiracy theories about President Tinubu, including that the degree from Chicago State University really belongs to a female named Bola Tinubu,” Tinubu’s lawyers said. “That conspiracy theory is not an asserted basis for discovery.”
But Peoples Gazette reports that Atiku’s lawyers, led by Angela Liu, quickly filed a response to let the judge know that the argument Tinubu’s lawyers were making should be ignored and the hearing should be allowed to proceed as scheduled.
“Although Abubakar disputes the assertions made by Tinubu in his Motion for Leave and accompanying sur-response, Abubakar consents to Tinubu’s submission of the sur-response and its accompanying exhibit, Dkt. 27-1, on the assumption that the Court will allow his counsel to respond to the arguments and assertions made therein at the hearing before the Court scheduled for tomorrow (September 12, 2023),” the lawyers said.
Recall that Atiku is asking the US court to grant enough subpoenas to compel records and depositions from CSU amid controversy about Tinubu’s admission and graduation.
The school has continued to present contradictory documents that often throw up more questions than previously conceived.
For instance, at least two certificates issued by the school in Tinubu’s name are in the public domain. One was given directly to Tinubu, while the other was given to a Nigerian lawyer who obtained a subpoena for the records last year. The one given to Tinubu said he graduated on June 22, 1979, having been admitted in 1977, while the one issued to the Nigerian lawyer, Mike Enahoro-Ebah, carried June 27, 1979.
Still, additional records of admission submitted by CSU under the 2022 subpoena showed that a certain Bola Tinubu, who was admitted to CSU also in the same 1977, presented a Southwest College result belonging to a female.
Furthermore, Elnora Daniel, the CSU president who purportedly signed the 2022 certificate for Tinubu, only joined the school in 1998, or 19 years after Tinubu was said to have graduated. She left in 2008 following a financial mismanagement scandal, or 14 years before she purportedly signed the certificate as the school’s current president.
