The media aide to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Paul Ibe, and a PDP youth leader, Timothy Osadolor, have accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of abandoning President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his controversial academic records.
Recall that former vice president Atiku Abubakar had approached a US court for the northern district of Illinois in Chicago for an order compelling Chicago State University to release the academic records of Tinubu.
Tinubu’s credentials show that he graduated from CSU in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, accounting, and management.
However, there have been allegations bordering on discrepancies with Tinubu’s certificate.
In the suit filed before the US district court, Abubakar prayed that the court should subpoena Tinubu’s files domiciled with CSU.
Abubakar said the files will settle the controversy surrounding Tinubu’s academic background and aid the election petition tribunal.
But Tinubu had claimed that a clerical error was responsible for discrepancies on the certificate issued to him by the university.
According to filings by Oluwole Afolabi and Christopher Carmichael, Tinubu’s lawyers, an unidentified university clerk made the error about the date the school stated on his recently-issued certificate, thereby creating “the appearance of differences.”
Speaking on the case before a US court, the Director of Publicity for the APC, Bala Ibrahim, disclosed that the ruling party had no problem with the PDP candidate’s quest if he followed the due process.
He said, “If Chicago State University says Atiku has to go to court, I don’t know what their law says about that. But in Nigeria, I know the law gives freedom of information and gives people the right to seek information, especially the one that ought to be in the public domain. I don’t know the situation in the US and what is legally correct about it.
“But Atiku has the right to ask for information pertaining to his opponent, provided he does not go through it the wrong way. What is the wrong way can best be answered by those who are conversant with the law.”
But in an interview with The PUNCH, Paul Ibe said the position of the APC showed that it had abandoned Tinubu due to the many controversies surrounding him.
Ibe said, “We are not surprised that the party said they cannot have issues with us. This is an indication that they have abandoned him. We are talking of a man whose identity is enmeshed in controversy. But the truth is, who won’t be tired?
“Everything about the man is shrouded in controversy. He claimed that he attended Government College, Ibadan, but he never stepped foot in that school. The primary school Tinubu claimed he attended is non-existent.
“Now, he is saying that the 156-year-old Chicago State University made a clerical error in his academic records. If you are carrying a certificate with an error, that certificate is fake. So, he is admitting that he is carrying a fake certificate.”
On his part, a member of the PDP’s National Executive Committee, Osadolor, said the APC director of publicity should be commended for his position.
“He knows the truth but doesn’t want to be quoted. Their principal’s academic records are shrouded in mystery, and he knows the truth. But because it is not convenient for him to stay on the side of the truth, he chose to say he won’t join issues with Atiku,” he said.
