The United States District Court in Northern Illinois has given Chicago State University (CSU) 48 hours starting from Saturday to release President Bola Tinubu’s academic records to an opposition candidate in Nigeria’s February presidential election, Atiku Abubakar.
In a ruling delivered on Saturday, the judge, Nancy Maldonado, after dismissing Mr Tinubu’s objection, gave the university until 12 noon on Monday to release the documents to Atiku.
Ms Maldonando dismissed Mr Tinubu’s objection to the 20 September decision of a magistrate judge of the court, Jeffery Gilbert.
The judge on Saturday fully affirmed Mr Gilbert’s ruling ordering the CSU to release Mr Tinubu’s academic records as requested by Atiku. She insisted Atiku had the right to have access to the records.
“For the reasons stated in the Court’s accompanying Memorandum Opinion and Order, the Court overrules President Tinubu’s objections (44] and adopts Judge Gilbert’s recommended decision [40] in full. The Court, therefore, grants Mr. Abubakar’s application under 28 U.S.C. § 1782. [1],” Ms Maldonado ruled.
She said the CSU must complete all necessary filings with regard to the release by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
“Respondent CSU is directed to produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to Requests for Production Nos. 1 through 4 (as narrowed by Judge Gilbert and adopted by the District Court in its opinion) in Mr. Abubakar’s subpoena, by 12:00 p.m. (noon) CDT, on Monday, October 2, 2023.
“The Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of CSU’s corporate designee must be completed by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2023,” the court ordered.
Atiku had asked for the documents for use in Nigerian courts to support his argument that Mr Tinubu forged a diploma certificate he claimed to have obtained from CSU in 1979 and submitted to Nigeria’s electoral body, INEC, for the 2023 presidential election.
This, Atiku argued, goes to the root of Mr Tinubu’s qualification to contest the last presidential election.
Although Atiku lost his case against Mr Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Court which delivered its judgement in early September, he hopes to reintroduce the issue backed with the documents from the CSU in his appeal which he is pursuing against the election court’s decision at the Nigerian Supreme Court.
Credit: premiumtimesng.com
