United States District Judge, Nancy Maldonado has ruled in favor of Atiku Abubakar. She has ordered the Chicago State University (CSU) to release Bola A. Tinubu’s Academic Records.
She gave tomorrow (Monday 2nd October) as the deadline. Judge Maldonado said that any request for a stay of this judgement from Tinubu’s lawyers, will be denied.
The judge said the CSU must release the records by 12:00 p.m. on Monday and also designate a senior official for deposition latest by 5:00 p.m. on the same day.
Mr. Abubakar had sought the records under Section 1782, a statute that allows the release of documents and evidence domiciled in the U.S. to be obtained and used in a foreign proceeding.
“The discovery sought here relates not only to a prominent public figure, President Tinubu, but is sought as part of an underlying dispute over the Nigerian presidential election, a matter of extreme importance to the Nigerian people.
“The discovery is thus undoubtably of significant importance, as are the issues at stake. And CSU has sole access to the discovery—there is no other way for Mr. Abubakar to access the sought-after information about President Tinubu’s diploma and education,” the court further said.
The statement was part of her late Saturday night order directing CSU to turn over Mr Tinubu’s academic records to Atiku Abubakar, a former Nigerian vice-president who also contested the February 2023 presidential election.
She meant, “she won’t be the one to tell Nigerians that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a Nigerian scammer (who faked the CSU Diploma Certificate), Nigerians should fill in the blank.”
Finally, she also meant, “she won’t be the one to tell Nigerians that your last election was a sham, Nigerians should figure it out themselves!”
