The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the just concluded election, Atiku Abubakar has asked Judge Nancy Maldonado to overrule the objections of President Bola Tinubu to the release of his Chicago University Records in its entirety.
Atiku made the demand in his response to Tinubu’s appeal to block his academic records from being released by the Chicago State University.
Tinubu initially resisted releasing his certificate after a magistrate judge on September 19, ordered Chicago State University to provide the document to Abubakar.
He pleaded severe harm to his life and obtained a stay of the magistrate judge’s order.
In their final brief to the court on Monday, Tinubu’s lawyers said that they had agreed to release the certificate in order to avoid “further delays” in the case. However, they reiterated their request for the judge to block all other details from being disclosed.
“There is harm in allowing discovery on issues and documents outside the diploma,” Tinubu’s lawyers said in their full briefing to the court.
Tinubu’s lawyers argued that “The most critical fact has already been clearly and unequivocally established by Chicago State University: Intervenor was awarded the degree as he stated. (Dkt. 21, Exhibit 3, ¶ 3; Dkt. 32, pg. 2.).”
Abubakar had alleged that Tinubu forged his certificate, while Tinubu has insisted that Bola Tinubu graduated and got a certificate from the university.
But Tinubu’s legal team in their brief insisted that: “This point is irrelevant to Applicant because he is not seeking anything more than opposition research on a political opponent.
Atiku said contrary to Tinubu’s claims, the demand for the release of the academic records is not a fishing exercise but to test the authenticity of 12pages of document including two different diplomas that was allegedly issued by CSU and the basis of CSU’s assertion that Tinubu graduated in 1979, given the discrepancies and his affidavit to INEC.
“This is a straightforward Section 1782 application (the “Application”) brought by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar (“Abubakar” or “Applicant”) seeking evidence from Respondent Chicago State University (“CSU”) for use in proceedings commenced by Abubakar (the “Abubakar Proceedings”) now pending in the Supreme Court of Nigeria. In those proceedings, Abubakar challenges, among other things, the electoral qualifications of President Bola A. Tinubu (“Tinubu” or “Intervenor”)-including whether he in fact attended CSU and whether he submitted a forged CSU diploma to Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (“INEC”) in 2022.
“Contrary to Intervenor’s inflated rhetoric, Applicant is not seeking ‘to conduct a fishing expedition into Intervenor’s private, confidential, and protected educational records.’ See ECF 44 (the “Objections”). Rather, Applicant seeks to test (1) the authenticity and origin of twelve (12) pages of documents (including two very different diplomas) that purport to have been issued by CSU (the “CSU documents”)-all of which have already been submitted to the Nigerian courts and widely published in the media; and (2) the basis for CSU’s categorical assertion that Tinubu received a B.S. degree in 1979, given discrepancies between information in the CSU documents and information in his affidavit submitted to INEC. If, as Intervenor asserts, he graduated from CSU in 1979 and the CSU documents are authentic copies issued by CSU-there is no reason why he should oppose the limited discovery Applicant seeks.
“On September 19, 2023, Magistrate Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert issued a thorough and well- reasoned Memorandum Opinion and Order (“Order”) (ECF 40), granting the Application and ordering CSU to produce four narrow categories of documents (as limited by Judge Gilbert), and to present a Rule 30(b)(6) designee to address five deposition topics.
“For the foregoing reasons, the Court should overrule the Objections in their entirety. If the Court overrules the Objections, Applicant respectfully requests that it enter an order requiring production of documents no later than October 2, 2023, and the deposition scheduled no later than October 3, to allow time for transcripts to be finalized, and the discovery obtained to be sent to Nigeria (which is six (6) hours ahead) by October 4 so that such evidence may, in turn, be filed with the Supreme Court by October 5, which is when Applicant’s Nigerian counsel intend to submit any new evidence to the Supreme Court.”
