THE Presidency has refuted claims that the certificate President Bola Tinubu presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in order to run for Presidency in 2023 was forged.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who also disagrees with the certificate presented will today address a press conference on the finding of his legal team over President Bola Tinubu’s academic records released by the Chicago State University.
“This is to inform and invite you to the World Press Conference of Our Presidential Candidate, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, GCON, at the Yar’Adua Centre, Tomorrow, Thursday 5, October 2023, in the afternoon.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, in a statement, yesterday, said Chicago State University, CSU, did not admit that the certificate Tinubu presented to INEC was fake anywhere in its deposition.
He argued further that the university affirmed under oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the institution and that the school does not handle replacements of lost certificates.
Ajayi spoke as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, said the administration of President Tinubu does not have time to waste on “trivial matters”, describing Atiku’s current moves as distractions.
However, Mr. Paul Ibe, Special Adviser to former Vice President and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, 2023, presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, dismissed Tuggars’s position as “irresponsible and shameful” and countered Ajayi, saying from the depositions on CSU’s records on Tuesday, Tinubu forged the documents.
This came as the Labour Party, LP, regretted that the controversies trailing Tinubu’s academic records were putting Nigeria’s image among the comity of nations on trial, adding that it was awaiting the supreme court’s decision on the issue to take a final position.
Ajayi’s rebuttal comes amid reports that the Chicago State University had said in the testimony of the institution that the Nigerian President presented a forged degree certificate to the INEC when he filed his paperwork to lead Nigeria in June 2022.