Atiku reacts as BBC report says no evidence Tinubu forged Chicago University Certificate

Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has knocked the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) over a report it published on Wednesday, October 11.

Atiku, in a statement signed by Phrank Shaibu, his media aide, lambasted the BBC over its fact-check report wherein it stated that there was no evidence to show that President Bola Tinubu’s Chicago State University (CSU) was forged.

Per Vanguard newspaper, the former vice-president described the BBC's report as a hatchet job. Atiku added that "the outrage it had solicited from the generality of Nigerians was enough evidence to show that the BBC goofed".

The PDP candidate's statement partly reads:

“Sometime last week, when the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) issued a final warning to Arise News TV, we pointed out that the Tinubu administration was on the verge of launching a full blown propaganda and also intimidating ‘uncooperative’ media houses into discrediting and downplaying the CSU scandal. Sadly, we never imagined that it would be the BBC that would become the willing tool.

“It is unconscionable, appalling and preposterous that in this current information age, a foreign medium of repute could try to bamboozle Nigerians with a jaundiced report when the details are clear for everyone to see. Thank God young Nigerians have begun filing complaints against the hack writers who decided to soil their names for a bowl of porridge.

“It is no wonder that in the last one year, the only news medium that was given exclusive access to interview Tinubu was the BBC. It is sickening that the BBC has decided to surrender its platform to a man who was accused of illegal drug trafficking in the United States.

“In the so-called fact-check report, the BBC decided to bury in the last paragraphs the fact that Tinubu claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos in 1970 when the school was established in 1974. Why didn’t these so-called fact-checkers reflect it on their headline?"