The official repudiation of President Tinubu’s certificate — the only academic qualification which he presented to the electoral office — comes at a deposition of school officials on Tuesday in Chicago.
An expanded transcript of the session is still being processed, but the expectation of Nigerians are on How the school would characterise Tinubu’s certificate under oath and penalty of perjury.
Caleb Westberg, the registrar at Chicago State University, said Tinubu’s certificate, dated June 22, 1979, and tendered to INEC on June 17, 2022, was not issued by the school and its administrators could, therefore, not be able to authenticate its source.
Mr Westberg, CSU’s registrar since November 2020, also said, during the deposition that lasted about 5 and half hours, that Tinubu did not apply for a replacement certificate, nor was he ever issued one.
The categorical statement capped a successful outcome for the months long legal strategy of Atiku Abubakar, Tinubu’s main opponent, who approached the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago to ascertain the authenticity or otherwise of the document.
The president’s allies have suggested publicly that the evidence was inconsequential and propagated the Supreme Court’s readiness to throw it out.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA has urged the Supreme Court of Nigeria to disqualify President Bola Tinubu from office or compel him to resign over his alleged identity theft and certificate forgery.
HURIWA made this call in a press statement following the revelation that the academic record from South-West College, which Tinubu used in gaining admission into Chicago State University (CSU) “belonged to a woman”.
The society civil group said the documents released by CSU to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was challenging Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential election in a US court, showed that Tinubu was enrolled as a female student with the name, Bola Adekunle Tinubu.
HURIWA described this as a shocking and shameful case of identity theft and certificate forgery, which they said has exposed Tinubu as a “fraud and a liar, who has deceived Nigerians for decades”.
The human rights group said Tinubu has no moral or legal right to continue to occupy the highest office in the land, having violated the constitution and the electoral laws of Nigeria.
They also accused Tinubu of being involved in other criminal activities such as drug trafficking and money laundering, citing some documents purportedly obtained from the US authorities that linked him to these offences.
The Human Rights group, therefore, urged the Supreme Court “not to act like Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus Christ by allowing this malfeasance to be sustained.”
The group said the apex court has a duty to uphold justice and protect the integrity of the electoral process and the democratic values of Nigeria.
HURIWA warned that if Tinubu was not disqualified or made to resign, Nigerians would lose faith in their leaders and institutions, and might resort to civil disobedience and mass protests to demand accountability.
The group also called on Nigerians to rise up and reject Tinubu as their president, saying he was a potential embarrassment and danger to Nigeria and its international reputation.