No Matter Attempts To Twist Facts, Tinubu’s INEC Certificate Is Forgery – Atiku 

• Atiku’s Evidence From Chicago Irrelevant, Tinubu Tells Supreme Court

FORMER Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the February 25 elections, Atiku Abubakar, has said, that no matter how hard President Bola Tinubu and his agents try to twist the facts, the president remains guilty of forgery.

Atiku, who also alleged that some of the president’s aides had commenced a campaign of propaganda to further confuse Nigerians about the forgery allegations against the president, however, advised Tinubu to tread the path of honour by resigning from his office.

“Another mystery is that in addition to the non-existing Government College Lagos certificate, Tinubu presented a certificate from another school in the United States that belongs to a female candidate and a Cambridge HSC of 1970 – the same year he purportedly graduated from a secondary school in Nigeria.

“Long before the CSU discovery of last week, Tinubu has had a history of forgery and perjury. In his Form CF001, he filed ahead of his governorship election in 1999, Tinubu had claimed, albeit fraudulently, that he attended St John’s Primary School Aroloya, Government College Ibadan and University of Chicago as different from Chicago State University. 

“The late lawyer and human rights icon, Gani Fawehinmi, would have succeeded in bursting him but for the immunity he enjoyed as governor of Lagos State. President Tinubu must be a man of mystery. 

“No wonder his supporters call him Idan (a distorter)”, the PDP presidential candidate said, it was his contention that at the heart of the forgery scandal against President Tinubu was the question of integrity and morality.

Meanwhile, President Tinubu has asked the Supreme Court to discountenance his Chicago State University academic records attached by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, to his election petition appeal, saying it is alien to the judicial proceedings in the country.

Tinubu asserted that the CSU discovery was not part of the record or the judgment of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, urging the apex court not to admit it.

The president further said the former vice-president had the habit of first filing a petition and afterwards hunting for evidence, noting that he had exhibited that while appealing the tribunal judgment. The president in his response to Atiku’s appeal filed Saturday by his lawyers led by Wole Olanipekun (SAN) held that the claim that his credentials contained discrepancies was merely cooked up by the PDP standard-bearer in the February presidential election.

He said, “Appellants’ submission under paragraph 6.45 of their brief further exposes the entire attitude of the appellants before the lower court, that is, the attitude of first filing a petition and then fishing for evidence during the pendency of the petition and even up to the point of appeal to this honourable court.

“Without prejudice to our objection to this issue, we submit that the arguments regarding a purported “Case No. 1:23-CV05009-Re: Application of Atiku for an Order Directing Discovery from Chicago State University…” is alien to these proceedings, does not arise from the record or the judgment of the lower court and cannot be countenanced by this honourable court and we urge the court to so hold.”

Stating that he was validly returned as the winner of the presidential poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission, the former Lagos State governor added that by statistics, he garnered one-quarter or 25 per cent of the total votes in 29 states of the federation.

Tinubu prayed the court to dismiss Atiku’s appeal and affirm the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court which upheld his election, having polled the highest number of votes. He further stated that Atiku resorted to cooking up allegations against him when he and the PDP failed to secure evidence to support their claim that he was not qualified to have contested the election.

Tinubu argued that Atiku brought up fresh issues, which included previous conviction/fine, forgery, and dual citizenship, among others after he had responded to his petition.

He said, “For the 3rd respondent, we beckon on the court towards the entirety of the 3rd respondent’s reply on the one hand (see pages 461-514 (vol.1) of the record), and the whole of Part B (save paragraph 35 thereof) of the Petitioner’s reply to the 3rd respondent’s reply (see pages 1722 -1731 (vol.3) of the record) on the other hand.

“A dispassionate examination of these paragraphs will reveal that the appellants as petitioners were only out to spring surprises at the respondent as none of the highlighted paragraphs of their said replies was meant to reply to any new issue raised in the respondents’ reply.

‘“It was through these paragraphs that they introduced various fresh issues, including allegations of previous conviction/fine, forgery, and dual citizenship against the 2nd respondent amidst sundry unfounded claims.’’

Responding to the appellants’ claims on modes of election result transmission, the President cited paragraphs 38 (I); 50(xx), and 53 (xii) of the Electoral Act and submitted that the Act created an alternative between electronic transmission and transfer with the use of ‘’or’’.

He noted, “For instance, paragraph 38(i), which deals with movement from the polling unit states that ‘on completion of all the polling unit voting and results procedures, the Presiding Officer shall: (i) Electronically transmit or transfer the result of the Polling Unit direct to the collation system as prescribed by the Commission.’

“Paragraph 50(xx) provides that ‘the Registration Area/Ward Collation Officer shall: Electronically transmit or transfer the result directly to the next level of collation as prescribed by the Commission.

“Paragraph 53(xii) provides that ‘the Local Government/Area Council Collation Officer for the Presidential Election shall Electronically transmit or transfer the result directly to the next level of collation, as prescribed by the Commission.” 

Tinubu held that in any event, the absence of the electronically transmitted results or results from the IREV portal did not necessarily create a brick wall in the absence of an INEC hardcopy of collated results.

Eighteen-Eleven Media