Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu has in a new twist levelled identity fraud and forgery allegations against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Candidate in the 2023 polls, Atiku Abubakar.
This is coming after the PDP candidate alleged that Tinubu forged his Chicago State University (CSU) credentials submitted to INEC.
President Tinubu’s counter affidavit filed at the Supreme Court on October 12, Atiku was accused of submitting fake credentials to Nigeria’s electoral commission, INEC, in that he bore “Atiku Kojoli” on his primary school certificate and “Siddiq Abubakar” on his 1965 West African School Certificate and General Certificate of Examination (WASSCE).
There appears to be a change of name affidavit showing how Atiku Abubakar in August 1973 legally regularised his name from Siddiq Abubakar to Atiku Abubakar, there is no clear explanation for the other name, “Atiku Kojoli.”
According to President Tinubu, there is no guarantee that Mr Abubakar 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,” says Tinubu in his counter affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on October 12 at 4:42 p.m.
Atiku had filed a motion at the Supreme court to introduce fresh evidence of forgery that has a deposition of Chicago State University (CSU) registrar, Caleb Westberg avvering that he could not authenticate the certificate Tinubu tendered to INEC because the institution (CSU) did not issue it.
The registrar noted that Tinubu procured the certificate through third party vendors as its practice with missing certificates.
