It’s too late for Atiku to use Chicago university records against me - Tinubu tells U.S court

President Bola Tinubu has said that it is too late for Atiku Abubakar to use his Chicago State University academic records against him at the election petition tribunal.

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, is challenging the 2023 presidential election that declared Tinubu having scored 8.7 million votes, and him second with 6.9 million votes.

Atiku who sought to nullify Tinubu’s election victory, by petitioning the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to subpoena CSU into releasing the president’s credentials to help is argument at the tribunal before September 21.

During court proceedings, Atiku alleged electoral fraud, narcotics dealing and election irregularities at the tribunal.

However, at the US court, Tinubu noted that releasing the records to Atiku would be unnecessary at this time as the deadline for admitting any evidence in the election tribunal had elapsed and that all parties are awaiting judgement.

“The evidentiary portion of the electoral court proceeding closed July 29, 2023, and a judgment is currently in the process of issuing. (Exhibit 7, Report of Pre-Hearing Session.) Therefore, there is no indication that the Nigerian election court would receive any additional evidence,” Mr Tinubu asserted in his response to application for issue of discovery on August 23 through his lawyers, Chicago-based Charles Carmichael and Oluwole Afolabi.

“Although, Mr Abubakar’s counsel believes it can attempt to submit additional evidence, that would be contrary to what the election court already ordered.

“Based on the nature of the tribunal and the proceedings underway, the electoral court would not allow the material sought by the application to be admitted,” Tinubu lawyers argued.

Mr Tinubu’s lawyers contended that the main piece of information requested by Mr Abubakar was whether the Nigerian leader had received a diploma and graduated from CSU, which the university registrar verified in its affidavit. Adding that any other thing sought after was irrelevant.

“The rest is immaterial,” the lawyers said.

Furthermore, Tinubu blamed the university clerk for entering wrong information on his records released to Nigerian lawyer Mike Enahoro-Ebah in August 2022 in response to a previous subpoena.

The CSU registrar, Caleb Westberg, corroborated Mr Tinubu’s argument in a sworn affidavit, saying the institution’s clerk, whose name was not given, had entered wrong details on Mr Tinubu’s records.