US Court Fast-tracks Release of Tinubu’s Chicago Records to Atiku Before Supreme Court Filing Deadline

The federal court in the United States is racing to complete Atiku Abubakar’s request to subpoena Chicago State University, CSU for President Bola Tinubu’s academic records after learning that Atiku has only 14 days to appeal the judgement of the election petitions tribunal at the Supreme Court of Nigeria using the requested records.

Specifically, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago has moved up the date for in-person arguments of Atiku and Tinubu’s lawyers from September 15 to September 12, citing “exigent circumstances” of the request.

Judge Jeffrey Gilbert strongly advised lawyers on both sides of the matter to appear in court for the proceeding, with the docket indicating an imminent ruling on the matter during the week.

You will recall that hours after a panel of five appellate justices struck out petitions against the incumbent president on Wednesday, an aggrieved Atiku Abubakar asked the U.S. Court to expedite the issuance of the CSU subpoena as he intended to use the records sought to file an appeal with Nigeria’s Supreme Court within 21 days.

Although President Tinubu’s lawyers have argued that the records are no longer critical because the deadline for submitting evidence has lapsed; Atiku’s lawyers cited a Supreme Court rule that allows the introduction of crucial evidence under special circumstances, which they believe would be forced by the release of the CSU evidence.