By Michael Chibuzo
Few weeks ago, I published a piece titled “Dissecting Atiku’s Wild Goose Chase to Chicago State University” where I analysed the fruitless adventure embarked upon by the PDP candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to Chicago State University in search of any evidence that could establish forgery in the diploma submitted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to INEC in 2022 as part of documents accompanying his presidential nomination form.
On Monday, as ordered by the US District Court in Illinois, Chicago State University released a total of 32 documents relating to the non-privileged academic records of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the counsel of Atiku Abubakar.
This was in response to three out of four requests by Atiku who is the Applicant in the discovery proceedings.
The entire fishing expedition by Atiku to CSU can be traced back to November 2022 when a legal practitioner Mike Enahoro-Ebah sued President Bola Tinubu (then presidential candidate of the APC) and attached a certified copy of President Tinubu’s diploma and other academic records, which the lawyer fraudulently obtained from Chicago State University who thought they were complying to a valid court subpoena, which later turned out to be a false subpoena.
The copy of Tinubu’s diploma Mike Enahoro-Ebah fraudulently obtained from CSU was different from the copy of diploma (a replacement certificate from CSU issued on June 27th, 1997), which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu submitted to INEC as part of his nomination documents. The said Mike Enahoro-Ebah alleged that the certificate Tinubu submitted was forged as it had different font, seal, signatories and dates.
The entire fishing expedition by Atiku to CSU can be traced back to November 2022 when a legal practitioner Mike Enahoro-Ebah sued President Bola Tinubu (then presidential candidate of the APC) and attached a certified copy of President Tinubu’s diploma and other academic records, which the lawyer fraudulently obtained from Chicago State University who thought they were complying to a valid court subpoena, which later turned out to be a false subpoena.
The copy of Tinubu’s diploma Mike Enahoro-Ebah fraudulently obtained from CSU was different from the copy of diploma (a replacement certificate from CSU issued on June 27th, 1997), which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu submitted to INEC as part of his nomination documents. The said Mike Enahoro-Ebah alleged that the certificate Tinubu submitted was forged as it had different font, seal, signatories and dates.
That suit was subsequently struck out but Atiku Abubakar immediately hired the hustling lawyer, Mike Enahoro-Ebah to continue with the fishing expedition and even illegally made him his star witness in his petition challenging the election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu before the PEPC. During the hearing, Atiku’s counsel sought to surreptitiously smuggle in President Bola Tinubu’s CSU certificate and other academic records into the petition through their ‘star witness’, Mike Enahoro-Ebah who was by the way never listed in the List of Witnesses accompanying the petition.
Mike Enahoro-Ebah was one of the witnesses whose depositions and documents tendered through them, including the academic records from CSU, were struck out by the PEPC Justices for being incompetent and constituting an abuse of court processes. Atiku Abubakar unwilling to accept his losing fate embarked on this latest certificate forgery evidence hunting to Chicago.
As a result of the difference in the design, font and signatories between the Certificate Mike Enahoro-Ebah obtained from CSU and the one President Tinubu submitted Atiku Abubakar gleefully thought he has hit a gold reserve in his mining for forgery evidence against President Tinubu. That explains his four revised requests from CSU which include:
1. To receive a true and correct copy of any diploma for a Bachelor of Science degree issued by CSU in 1979. (Their intent is to establish that the 1979 format differs with what President Tinubu submitted to INEC under oath).
2. To receive a true and correct copy of any diploma issued by CSU to President Tinubu (intent same as in request 1).
3. To receive true and correct copies of any diploma issued by CSU (other than Tinubu) that contains the same FONT, SEAL, SIGNATORIES and WORDING (other than the name of the recipient and the specific degree awarded) as contained in the copy of the certificate President Tinubu submitted to INEC. (They hoped that CSU would not be able to provide this request since it will prove that CSU has actually issued in the past certificates that looked like the one President Tinubu submitted to INEC in terms of font, seal or signatories).
4. To receive true and correct copies of any CSU documents relating to President Tinubu that were certified by Jamar C. Orr, Esq. and all communications to or from CSU concerning the certification of such documents by Jamar C. Orr, Esq. between August 1, 2022 and August 1, 2023. (Here, Atiku simply wants to confirm if the certified copies of academic transcript, admission letter etc, which President Tinubu got from CSU and which were certified by Mr. Jamar Orr were ACTUALLY from the said Mr. Jamar Orr.)
Unfortunately for Atiku Abubakar, his regular supporters and his emergency supporters from the Obidient camp, CSU dashed all their expectations. CSU by releasing a total of 32 documents essentially confirmed for probably the hundredth time that President Bola Tinubu actually graduated from CSU in 1979 and that the replacement certificate he was issued in June 1997 was authentic and reflects the type of certificate the school was issuing to its students around that period.
Specifically, to Atiku’s Request No. 1, CSU produced seven (7) copies of diplomas it issued to seven of its former students in 1979 with the names of the students redacted for privacy reasons.
In response to Atiku’s Request No. 2, CSU did not produce any copy of President Tinubu’s original diploma and re-stated its earlier depositions that it does not in the ordinary course keep copies of the student diplomas but treats them as mere ceremonial documents.
In response to Atiku’s Request No. 3 produced five (5) copies of diplomas prepared for other CSU students, which match the format (font, seal and signatories) of the replacement diploma dated June 27, 1997, which CSU issued to President Bola Tinubu.
Some point to the fact that the copies of the 1979 diplomas released by CSU are different in both font, seal and signatories from the copy of the diploma President Bola Tinubu submitted to INEC. This to them amounts to forgery! Well, I think they have not been listening. CSU has made it clear that they do not necessarily keep copies of all its students original diplomas as it treats them as ceremonial documents.
Finally, in response to Atiku’s Request No. 4, CSU was able to hand over to Atiku Abubakar nineteen (19) documents relating to President Bola Tinubu that were certified by Mr. Jamar Orr between August 1, 2022 and August 1, 2023. The communication aspect was not produced because the court had earlier sustained the objection of CSU to that part of request 4 on the ground that it is unduly burdensome on CSU.
From the foregoing it is clear that the highly anticipated delivery of an earth-shattering revelation from CSU witnessed a stillbirth and an anticlimax because the revelations from CSU were basically the same information that have been in the public domain for the past one year. The expectation of an extraordinary evidence that Atiku Abubakar hopes to bizzarely convince the Supreme Court to admit at an appellate has simply hit an iceberg.
However in a bid to create an alternate reality, many Atiku supporters and those of Mr. Peter Obi have been embarrassingly showing their lack of understanding of simple English language and inability to analyse basic facts by falsely claiming that the documents CSU released has established that the copy of the diploma President Bola Tinubu submitted to INEC was forged!
Some point to the fact that the copies of the 1979 diplomas released by CSU are different in both font, seal and signatories from the copy of the diploma President Bola Tinubu submitted to INEC. This to them amounts to forgery! Well, I think they have not been listening. CSU has made it clear that they do not necessarily keep copies of all its students original diplomas as it treats them as ceremonial documents.
Therefore, if any of its former students applies for a replacement certificate, the diploma will reflect the current format (font type and seal) as at the time of the application and not the font type or seal of the original certificate issued when the student graduated. The signatories at every point in time are always CSU officials in office at the time of the application or issuance. CSU would not start looking for the five signatories that were signing diplomas in 1979 to come and sign a replacement certificate in 1997. CSU made that very clear.
With the release of these documents, it is now very obvious to any sensible human being that the duo of Atiku Abubakar (the applicant) and Mr. Peter Obi (who went to Princeton University to propagate the certificate forgery propaganda) are very desperate losers who cannot take the pain of defeat.
Since the conclusion of the Presidential Election, the duo and their supporters have tried every antics to either discredit our Democratic process, impugn the integrity of the judiciary so brazenly and encourage unpatriotic posturing just because Nigerians rejected them at the polls.