U.S. judge denies Bola Tinubu’s emergency appeal, orders CSU to turn over records to Atiku

…Testify under oath Monday

Senior U.S. judge denies Bola Tinubu’s emergency appeal, orders CSU to turn over records to Atiku, testify under oath today afternoon.

President Bola Tinubu has lost his emergency application to block Chicago State University (CSU) from releasing his academic records to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.

The ruling marks a major blow to Tinubu and a huge victory for Atiku Abubakar, who has been seeking the records to establish that the President presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) when he submitted his application to run for president in June 2022.

Judge Maldonado said the decision of a lower federal magistrate judge on September 19 was appropriate and adopted it in full.

The district judge also said the CSU should turn over the records to Abubakar by 12:00 p.m. Monday and also make its officials available for deposition to authenticate the documents by 5:00 p.m. on the same day.

The judge said any attempt by Tinubu to appeal the judgement in the district would no longer be tolerated as Abubakar must transfer the collected evidence to the Nigerian Supreme Court for use in an ongoing election petition case by October 5.

The judge, however, said Tinubu is free to file his appeal directly before the Seventh Circuit, which is the main appellate court overseeing Illinois and nearby states, an attempt that would likely prove daunting given the tight window for compliance by CSU.

Section 137 (1) (j) of the Nigerian Constitution (amended in 2010) specifically stated that no one would be legitimately elected president of Nigeria if the person “has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.”

Prior to the ruling late Saturday night, Judge Maldonado had acknowledged the significant public interest dimension of the case, saying it would cause her to expedite justice for all parties.

The CSU said it would state under oath that Tinubu attended, but it won’t be able to certify the authenticity of the certificate he paraded in Nigeria under oath.

Abubakar’s lawyers would now be able to test the school’s claims, alongside Tinubu’s, during tomorrow’s records release and cross-examination.