President Bola Tinubu submitted a fake degree certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) when he submitted his documents to lead Nigeria in June 2022.
The rejection of Mr Tinubu's official credentials - the only academic qualification he submitted to the election office - came at a meeting of school officials on Tuesday in Chicago.
Caleb Westberg, the registrar at Chicago State University, said Mr. Tinubu's certificate dated June 22, 1979, which he submitted to INEC on June 17, 2022, was not issued by the school. Its leaders cannot determine its source.
Mr. Westberg, the CSU Registrar since November 2020, also said that while presenting the documents that were taken away, Mr. Tinubu did not ask for a replacement certificate, and it was never given to him.
The announcement shows a positive result for the months-long legal strategy of Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Tinubu's main opponent, who went to the Northern Illinois District Court in Chicago to confirm the authenticity or otherwise. Federal Court Judge Nancy Maldonado gave the final order to the CSU management to hand over all documents related to Mr. Tinubu of the school and sit down to listen to the lawyers sent by Mr. Abubakar.
Mr. Tinubu, who was aware of the consequences of the session, strongly opposed the success, where his lawyers warned the judge at the session held on September 21, that the release of the documents with the charges- The charge will cause the president of Nigeria an indescribable damage.
The school that insists that Mr. Tinubu is its student, where he joined in 1977 and graduated in 1979, but the inability to verify the certificate handed over by the President of Nigeria will destroy the Nigerian people of more than 200 million in the future.
Back in 1999, Mr. Tinubu lied when he ran for the governorship of Lagos, saying that he had obtained a degree from the University of Chicago. But he managed to escape from the accusation of his alleged crime because he was elected before he was discovered, and he did not submit the certificate to support his claim, except the certificate that was found to be a myth. is, and the Supreme Court of Nigeria said that he will not be charged with crimes as a sitting governor. He later dropped his claim to attend the University of Chicago, claiming to attend Chicago State University, one of Illinois' most traditionally black universities.
So far, the president's spokesperson has not been available for comment regarding the incident on Tuesday night.
Supporters of the president are considering the situation of the collapse of the president's certificate, they think his lawyers in Nigeria will be able to convince the Supreme Court to focus more on the school's position that Mr. Tinubu is a student instead of his come to making fake documents.
On Monday evening, shortly after the school released the information in the electronic data entry portal used by lawyers for all parties, Mr. Tinubu's team circulated false information about the documents, which they succeeded in deceiving. some media in claiming that the school has verified Mr. Tinubu's certificate. .
They also said that a change of documents was issued to Mr. Tinubu on June 27, 1997, in what appears to be a reference to the affidavit submitted by the school following the 2022 summons from a state court obtained by Nigerian lawyer Mike Enahoro-Ebah.
Mr. Enahoro-Ebah received the certificate, dated June 27, 1979, with all the records of Mr. Tinubu's studies from CSU in August 2022. But the certificate was signed by Elnora Daniel and Niva Lubin, who are not members of the school. in 1979 and they wrote June 27, 1979, as the date of release of the results.
After comparing the affidavit given by the CSU to the affidavit Mr. Tinubu submitted to INEC, dated June 22, 1979, Mr. Enahoro-Ebah returned to Nigeria with the written statement and sued Mr. Tinubu for the crime. forged documents. However, the case was suspended in an Abuja court for months before the election and the case was not heard even months after the election.
Atiku used conflicting information to sue the federal court in Chicago to seek a warrant to continue his trial against Mr. Tinubu in Nigeria, where he went as far as the charges against him. on last Tuesday who confirmed that Mr. Tinubu falsified the certificate, broke the law of the land.
Mr. Tinubu was barely declared the winner of the February 25 presidential election and was sworn in.