Officials of the Chicago State University (CSU) have disowned the certificate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The CSU officials made the denial during deposition under oath before Judge Nancy Maldonado of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.
They disowned the certificate Tinubu presented to INEC to contest the 2023 Presidential election as well as the stamp and other items on the certificate, saying that they do not know where he got the certificate from.
The details denied by the officials include the alleged clerical errors for date of birth, gender, social security number and name on the university’s certificate.
Other details in contention include his claim that he attended a secondary school that didn’t exist till 4 years after he supposedly graduated from the university.
One of the CSU officials interrogated during the Deposition said amongst other things:
“I’m not aware of any instance where CSU had been requested to certify a document.
“Mr. Wole Afolabi who was acting for President Tinubu insisted that the documents must be certified.
“Mr. Wole Afolabi is President Tinubu’s lawyer.
“Mr. Afolabi and Mr. Orr communicated by email. I don’t recall seeing the emails.
“I don’t know if Jason Carter approved of the certification.
“Apart from Jason Carter I do not know anyone else who was involved in the process.
“I went into Mr. Tinubu’s student’s file and produced the documents to Mr. Orr.
“I didn’t know that the documents would be certified. I don’t get involved in legal matters.
“Mr. Tinubu requested that the documents be released to Mr. Afolabi for ‘legal proceedings’.
“The signature on the consent form is similar to the signature we have on record for Mr. Tinubu”.
“All of the certified documents came from CSU’s files. Nothing was handed over to us by Mr. Afolabi except for the FERPA form.
“CSU had never certified documents for anyone before. It must have been made because there was more of a Nigerian thing”.
“The documents were released in pursuance of a FERPA request. I believe Mr. Afolabi requested that the documents be certified.
“I’m not aware if the stamp affixed by Mr. Orr to the documents was an official document. It is not part of CSU practice.
“Mr. Orr later departed from CSU after these documents… after these documents were certified.
“I don’t know if his departure was connected to the certification of the documents; but I don’t think it was”.
