A United States judge has given has given Chicago State University (CSU) 48 hours starting from Saturday to release President Bola Tinubu’s academic records to Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in Nigeria’s last presidential election
Abubakar is seeking to void the election of President Tinubu at Nigeria’s Supreme court and wants to the academic records to prove his case of alleged forgery of academic records against the president.
Nancy Maldonado, a judge of the United States District Court in Northern Illinois, gave the ruling on Saturday after dismissing Tinubu’s objection. She gave the university until 12 noon on Monday to release the documents to Atiku.
A magistrate court judge had given a similar ruling on September 20. But President Tinubu’s lawyers appealed against the ruling arguing that releasing the academic record would cause the Nigerian president irreparable damage. That appeal has now been dismissed by the higher court.
“For the reasons stated in the Court’s accompanying Memorandum Opinion and Order, the Court overrules President Tinubu’s objections (44] and adopts Judge Gilbert’s recommended decision [40] in full.
“The Court therefore grants Mr. Abubakar’s application under 28 U.S.C. § 1782. [1],” Judge Maldonado ruled.
She said the CSU must complete all necessary filings with regard to the release by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
