President Bola Tinubu has sought with a US judge to put an emergency hold on a recent order releasing his university records in order to prevent him from suffering serious and irreparable harm.
Mr. Tinubu said the damage he would suffer would be impossible to repair if the September 6 judgment requiring the handover of his academic records to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is not delayed for possible vacation.
“Severe and irreparable harm will be done to Bola Tinubu if the records are released,” Mr Tinubu’s lawyer argued at an emergency appeal before Judge Nancy Maldonado of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago.
During the court hearing that started at 3:00 p.m. by telephone conference, Mr. Tinubu’s attorney added that if the records are revealed, harm will be done and cannot be undone. Today, Chicago State University received a mandate to provide Mr. Abubakar with the documents.
Before the order takes effect in approximately an hour, a stay of execution is being sought in the ongoing court.
At issue has been the subpoena application filed by Mr Abubakar attempting to get records of Mr Tinubu at Chicago State University, citing major anomalies with the Nigerian president’s academic credentials already in the public domain.
In a decision handed down on Tuesday, Mr. Gilbert approved Mr. Abubakar’s request and ordered the release of the papers as well as the deposition of the school’s administrators. Invoking the constitutional provision that disqualifies a candidate who submits a fake certificate to the electoral authority INEC, Mr. Abubakar intends to use the records to show Mr. Tinubu’s ineligibility for president.
Officials from the CSU have asserted that Mr. Tinubu attended the institution, but they have also stated that they were unable to certify his diploma under oath since they were unable to determine where he obtained it.
Abubakar now plans to submit the records to the Nigerian Supreme Court as part of his appeal against a tribunal’s decision certifying Mr. Tinubu’s election on September 6. Mr. Tinubu previously contended that the documents should not be made available to Mr. Abubakar because they would not be tenable before that court.
On September 19, Mr. Abubakar filed his appeal with the Supreme Court, and two days later, Judge Gilbert ordered CSU to provide Mr. Tinubu’s records.
On Thursday afternoon, however, as the 48-hour deadline drew near, Mr. Tinubu hurriedly approached Ms. Maldonado, asking for a delay and abruptly escalating the urgent condition of the matter to include potential harm to Mr. Tinubu’s life.
Later, Judge Maldonado approved the request to postpone the document release and instructed all parties to submit their complete papers by September 25.
