President Bola Tinubu has filed a petition before the Supreme Court with claims that the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, forged some certificates he (Atiku) submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Tinubu in a counter affidavit filed at the apex court on October 12, accused Atiku of submitting fake credentials to INEC in his bid to contest for the election under the platform of the PDP.
The President revealed that the former vice president had “Atiku Kojoli” on his primary school certificate and “Siddiq Abubakar” on his 1965 West African School Certificate and General Certificate of Examination.
According to him, there is no guarantee that Atiku was the man he claimed to be because of the inconsistencies in the names on his primary and secondary school certificates.
“It is the 1st appellant’s acclaimed primary school certificate bearing the name “Atiku Kojoli” and his purported 1965 West African School Certificate and General Certificate of Examination bearing the name “Siddiq Abubakar” (as opposed to the name “Atiku Abubakar”, which he claims to Nigerians and INEC to be his) that are yet to be explained by Jeda Primary School Adamawa (which he claimed to have attended), the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, West African Examination Council or such other credible institution with the capacity to so do,” asserted Tinubu in his counter-affidavit submitted to the apex court on October 12 at 4:42 p.m.
“Now shown to me, attached hereto and marked as Exhibit 9, is a copy of the said Siddiq Abubakar’s 1965 West African School Certificate and General Certificate of Examination, submitted by the 1st appellant,” Tinubu added.
Atiku had on October 5, filed a motion at the Supreme Court to present fresh evidence of forgery that contained a deposition of Chicago State University Registrar, Caleb Westberg, saying he could not authenticate the certificate Tinubu tendered to INEC because the institution did not issue it.
Tinubu’s legal representatives, on the other hand, are fiercely opposing the motion, requesting that the Supreme Court give a judgement only based on the evidence admitted in the first court of trial where the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal had in September dismissed all the petitions filed by the PDP chieftain against the President.
