On Sunday, Bayo Onanuga, the Director of Media and Publicity for the now-dissolved All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, reported that President Bola Tinubu and his lawyers are not concerned about the court order for the immediate release of the President’s academic records by the Chicago State University (CSU). Judge Maldonado has given CSU until 12 noon on Monday to release the documents to Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party.
According to Tinubu’s personal lawyer, Senior Advocate of Nigeria Babatunde Ogala, any document obtained by Atiku from the Chicago State University will no longer be useful.
“‘The headless mob is masturbating over nothing. The documents can no longer be used. It is of no value. We have passed that stage’.
“Ogala broke down the requests of Atiku to CSU, some of which the school already gave to the the Presidential Election Petition Court before its 6 September judgment, in which it dismissed Atiku and Peter Obi’s petitions.
“One is whether President Tinubu attended Chicago State University. The answer is yes. Second, what were his grades in school? The school had already provided that.”
United States Judge, Nancy Maldonado’s judgment comes after the legal team of Tinubu filed a plea at the court for Chicago State University not to release his academic records to Atiku.
Mr Atiku had earlier secured an order from Jeffrey Gilbert’s Magistrate Court for the American institution to make the President’s academic records available to his legal team.
The documents sought by Atiku, through his counsel, Angela Liu, include the record of admission and acceptance at the university, dates of attendance including degrees, awards, and honours attained by the former governor of Lagos State at the university, among others.
The identity of who was admitted into Chicago State University in the 1970s has been a hot issue after college transcripts indicated that the school admitted a female Bola Tinubu from Southwest College Chicago in 1977.