The United States District Court in Northern Illinois has made a ruling that mandates Chicago State University (CSU) to disclose President Bola Tinubu’s academic records to Nigerian opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar by noon on Monday.
These documents are being sought for use in Nigerian courts to support allegations that Mr. Tinubu forged a diploma certificate he claimed to have earned from CSU in 1979, which he submitted to Nigeria’s electoral body for the 2023 presidential election.
Presiding over the case, Judge Nancy Maldonado dismissed Mr. Tinubu’s objections and upheld a previous ruling by Magistrate Judge Jeffery Gilbert, affirming Atiku’s right to access these records.
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The court’s decision specifies that CSU must provide relevant and non-privileged documents by 12:00 p.m. (noon) CDT on Monday, October 2, 2023, and that a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of CSU’s corporate designee must be concluded by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.
While Atiku Abubakar had previously lost his case against Mr. Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Court, he intends to reintroduce the issue with documents from CSU in his appeal to the Nigerian Supreme Court.
The court cautioned Mr. Tinubu against seeking a stay of the order, indicating that such an application would be denied due to time constraints for filing the documents in Nigeria’s Supreme Court. His only recourse for a stay of execution would be to apply at the US Court of Appeals.
The court’s order mandates CSU to release four sets of documents related to Mr. Tinubu, including exemplars of a diploma issued to him in 1979, any exemplar diploma matching the purported CSU diploma submitted by Mr. Tinubu, and CSU documents certified and produced by an associate general counsel at CSU, Jamar Orr, along with related communications.
