JUST IN: Release Tinubu’s Academic’s record to ATIKU By Monday , October 2nd ~ US Court
Written by admin on October 1, 2023
President Bola Tinubu, some days ago, objected to the release of his Chicago State University (CSU) records to the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Tinubu pleaded that if the court was inclined to grant Atiku’s application for discovery, it should be limited to only his diploma certificate he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in aid of his qualification for the 2023 presidential election, which he won.
But Director of Research and Documentation, Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation, Dr. Don Pedro Obaseki, said the reason Atiku insisted on open and full disclosure of Tinubu’s credentials by the CSU was because they actually belonged to a woman. Obaseki made the allegation during a zoom conference hosted by London-based psychologist, Professor Gold Emmanuel.
In his latest plea to the court, Tinubu said, “That conclusion should be set aside and the application should be denied because the information sought cannot be used and, therefore, is not ‘for use’ in the foreign proceedings.
“Even if a narrow subset of information can be considered ‘for use’ in the foreign proceeding, that is limited to the diploma submitted to INEC. Fishing expeditions into other documents and more document productions must be precluded.”
It has been a serious battle among APC , PDP and LP after 2023 general eletion that produced Tinubu as the president of Fedral Republic of Nigeria.
Howbeit, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has ruled in favour of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, and ordered that the Chicago State University should release President Tinubu’s academic record to the former vice president by Monday, October 2nd.
Judge Nancy Maldonado, in a copy of the judgment obtained by PUNCH on Sunday, noted that CSU raised no objection to Judge Jeffery Gilbert’s decision that the academic record be made public.
The court explained that any intrusion on Tinubu’s privacy interests in his educational records is outweighed by Atiku’s interest in the sought-after discovery.
Maldonado overruled Tinubu’s objections to Gilbert’s recommended ruling and therefore adopted the ruling in full.
The memorandum opinion and order read in part, “Atiku’s application is therefore granted. In light of the pending Supreme Court of Nigeria deadline. represented to the Court as October 5, 2023, and based on CSU’s representations that it is ready to comply with the discovery requests and produce a witness, the Court sets an expedited schedule for completion of discovery. Respondent CSU is directed to produce all relevant and non-privileged documents.
“The Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of CSU’s corporate designee must be completed by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. Given the October 5, 2023, filing deadline before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the Court will not extend or modify these deadlines.”
