President Bola Tinubu is accused of forging a diploma from an American university that he presented to Nigeria’s electoral commission ahead of the February vote.
Nigeria’s opposition claims it will present new evidence to support its legal action to overturn this year’s presidential election. Opponents of the president stated they could prove that the declared winner provided authorities with fake academic credentials.
A presidential election contestant and his lawyer claimed in a briefing with journalists that President Tinubu should be suspended from office for faking the US diploma. They cited records obtained from the university at a US court hearing.
Abubakar also accused the electoral commission of not following procedure in declaring a winner, and Tinubu was ineligible to run because of allegations of dual citizenship and criminal charges in the United States.
The runner-up is one of the three candidates who are in court seeking to nullify Tinubu’s election victory. Kalu Kalu, the lawyer, said they were going to present “new evidence” in the case before the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
A party at fault cannot be allowed to enjoy the fruit of his illegality.
The case may be the first time in Nigeria’s history when a presidential election is nullified.
Advancing the lawsuit, Abubakar secured an order from the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ordering Chicago State University, where Tinubu attended, to publicise his academic achievements.
Caleb Westberg, the registrar of the university, confirmed that the institution “has the original records of Bola Tinubu,” but added that he could not authenticate the diploma the Nigerian leader presented to the electoral commission, which indicated that he graduated in 1979.
We’re not qualified to verify whether this document [the diploma] is authentic, given that it is not in our possession.
Westberg also confirmed that the school had “no record of issuing” the diploma in question.
Alexandre de Gramont, Abubakar’s representative in the US court, claimed the team had managed to obtain “virtually everything we were looking for” after a “hard-fought battle to obtain the educational records which Mr. Tinubu’s lawyers vigorously opposed at every step.”
