The presidency has opened up on the allegations of forgery against President Bola Tinubu.
Claims were made that the certificate presented by the President to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the upcoming 2023 elections was forged. However, these claims were dismissed.
Recently, Chicago State University (CSU) released Tinubu’s academic records to his political opponent, Atiku Abubakar, as ordered by a court. Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 election, requested these documents to support his allegation that Tinubu’s CSU certificate was forged.
In his reaction Wednesday, President Tinubu’s media aide, Temitope Ajayi, contended that CSU confirmed under oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the institution and that the school does not handle replacements for lost certificates. He said there was no truth in the forgery claim, adding that no person can forge a certificate he already has.
Reacting via his account on the X formerly known as Twitter, the presidential media aide wrote: “We should be clear. “In the deposition made by the Chicago State University, there was nowhere the University said the certificate presented to INEC by President Tinubu is fake. The University insisted under oath that President Tinubu graduated with honors and even at that, replacements for lost certificates are done by vendors, not the University.
“The claim that President Tinubu submitted a fake certificate to INEC does not make sense. A man can not forge the academic records he possesses. You can only forge what you don’t have.”