By Ben Atonko & Jude Opara, Abuja

Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar on Thursday, said his battle against President Bola  Tinubu will endure until the last court in the land rules.

Speaking at press a conference in Abuja, Atiku said the battle against the qualification of Tinubu for the presidency was to install good governance, accountability and probity in public service.

Atiku ended his address without making a definite position on   Tinubu’s certificate matter.

The allegation of forgery was among those dismissed by the Presidential Election Petition Court in the suit Atiku filed to challenge the election of Tinubu.

After losing the case in Nigeria,he proceeded to the US scouting for evidence to prove that Tinubu had tendered a forged document to Nigeria’s electoral umpire.

He approached a US court asked for official documents to back his claim and possibly include them in his appeal at the Supreme Court.

The US court obliged Atiku and   directed the Chicago State University (CSU) to release to him documents relevant in his case.

He sought three documents viz: an example of a CSU diploma issued in 1979; Tinubu’s diploma issued in 1979; example of a CSU diploma that “contains the same font, seal, signatures and wording” as Tinubu’s diploma issued in June 1979 and CSU documents certified and produced by Jamar Orr, an associate general counsel at CSU at the time.

The university registrar had made an oral deposition of the documents, but there were different interpretations.

When a journalist asked him to state specifically what he found after perusing the documents, Atiku declined but  called on his lawyer, Kalu Kalu to speak in his stead.

Kalu said one of the documents showed that Tinubu forged the certificate of a black American.

In his words, “On the certificate issued or released by Chicago State University to the lawyers of Alhajji Atiku Abubakar. These are the documents; One, that Bola Ahmed Tinubu forged the certificate he presented to INEC [Independent National Electoral Commission].

“Two, that the qualified certificate from Southwest College to Chicago State University bears a female. That means that document doesn’t belong to Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Three, the Chicago State University admission application form has a claim that Bola Ahmed Tinubu attended Government College Lagos and graduated in 1970, when indeed the school got established in 1974.

“The same document has it that the owner of that document is a Black American and the document Bola Ahmed Tinubu submitted to INEC, he denied having dual citizenship, which means it does not belong to him.”

Earlier, the presidency for the first time had dismissed claims that the certificate Tinubu presented to INEC for the 2023 elections was forged.

Tinubu’s media aide, Temitope Ajayi said CSU had affirmed under oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the institution and that the school does not handle replacements for lost certificates.

He said there was no truth in the forgery claim, adding that no person can forge a certificate he already has.

His presentation on X read, “We should be clear. In the deposition made by the Chicago State University, there was nowhere the university said the certificate presented to INEC by President Tinubu is fake.

“The university insisted under oath that President Tinubu graduated with honours and even at that, replacement for lost certificates is done by vendors not the university.

“The claim that President Tinubu submitted fake certificate to INEC does not make sense.

“A man cannot forge the academic records he possesses. You can only forge what you don’t have.”

Atiku, who was accompanied to the press conference by former state governors and PDP chieftains vowed to fight the battle to a logical conclusion.

The PDP presidential candidate paid tribute to the late Human Rights activist, Gani Fawehinmi, stressing that the activist inspired him to make inquiries about Tinubu’s certificate.

He appealed to the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Mr Peter Obi as well as that of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to join him in the struggle to enthrone legitimate and lawful government for Nigeria.

According to him, the nation needs a legitimate government in the interest of future generations as he called on well-meaning Nigerians to join the struggle.

 APC Replies Atiku, Says PDP Candidate a Liar

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday, fired back at former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar following his earlier press briefing, where he alleged that President Bola Tinubu presented fake certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

It would be recalled that Atiku, who was also the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 Presidential election had approached a Court in the United States of America to compel the Chicago State University (CSU) to publish the academic records of Tinubu.

In a statement, the National Publicity Secretary (NPS) of the APC, Felix Morka said the briefing by Atiku was a pure waste of time, which focused on fiction and unsubstantiated claims.

Morka in the statement titled; “Yet Again Atiku Abubakar Beats His Tattered Drum of Shame” said the APC was unfazed by whatever claims Atiku made in his briefing because it lacked purpose and delivered pure lies.

“The press briefing lacked purpose and delivered nothing except the pitiful regurgitation of lies, mindless distortions and deliberate falsehood on his infantile obsession with the academic record of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“For several weeks now, Nigerians and the world have watched with incredulity, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s display of utter desperation in his failed bid to become the President of Nigeria.

“Earlier today, he put his desperation in overdrive during his press conference, where he addressed some of the issues in his appeal at the Supreme Court and bandying unproven charges against the President of Nigeria, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a calculated attempt to shamelessly whip up public sentiments and inordinately pressure the Supreme Court”.

According to the APC spokesman, the only takeaway from the press briefing is that the former Vice President bears a deep seated animosity against President Tinubu.

“The major takeaway from his Yar’Adua Centre show, especially at question time, was that Atiku harbours deep animosity towards Tinubu whom he believes was responsible for his electoral woes in 2007, 2015, 2019 and this year.

“In desperation, unbecoming of a statesman who once occupied the second highest office in the land, the PDP candidate in the last election has thrown every decency, decorum, dignity and national respectability out the window on his purposeless judicial voyage of discovery to the United States in search of a magic wand for taking power against the will of the Nigerian electorate loudly expressed in last February’s presidential election.

“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar holds the unenviable title of Nigeria’s most prolific election loser and longest running presidential candidate in history, and we see his recent US fishing expedition as the last kick of a roundly rejected presidential aspirant.

“While we sympathize with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for spending a lifetime pursuing unrealized dream, we strongly condemn the perfidious road he has taken and the needless negative exposure of Nigeria and the institution of the Presidency in foreign land” he stated.

Morka also claimed that CSU owned up that Tinubu was actually a student of the institution as the president has consistently claimed.

“Just for the record, we wish to provide some clarity on the matter of the deposition of Mr. Caleb Westberg, the Registrar of Chicago State University, last Tuesday under oath at the Chicago office of Atiku’s lawyer, Angela Liu, to save unsuspecting Nigerians from barrage of untruths, distortions and campaign of misinformation being dished out by Atiku and his PDP

“Mr. Westberg was unmistaken and unambiguous in his deposition as to the fact that President Bola Tinubu graduated with honours from Chicago State University. He also emphatically provided clear answers on all other issues raised which we can sum as follows:

“That the person who is Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is the same person who attended Chicago State University.

“He confirmed that a certain gentleman called Adeniji who had come forward to say he was Tinubu’s classmate was in fact a student at CSU at the same time and they both ran for student union positions”. 

“Furthermore, he stated that the ‘F’ on the Southwest college certificate, a feeder institution to CSU, which President Bola Tinubu used to gain admission into CSU was a clerical error which could of course happen. He reiterated that Southwest College was a major feeder source for CSU.

“He pointed out that CSU has had at least six Registrars since 1979 and in an affidavit at an Illinois court prior to the deposition said “Chicago State University provided a diploma to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and subsequently provided a certified (or official) copy of that diploma. Both are valid and authentic diplomas of Chicago State University,” he explained.

The statement added that Atiku did not only want the CSU documents for his case at the Supreme Court but to use it to blackmail the President but observed that the plan had failed flat because Nigerians knew they freely elected President Tinubu as their leader.