Atiku Vs Tinubu: Only vendors produce replacement certificates, says Chicago varsity

Atiku Vs Tinubu: Only vendors produce replacement certificates, says Chicago varsity 

The Chicago State University (CSU) on Tuesday said only approved vendors could produce replacement certificates to its graduates should they lose original copies earlier issued to them.

It also said it did not have a copy of certificate presented by President Bola Tinubu to the electoral umpire ahead of the 2023 Nigeria’s poll.

It stated this in a deposition made on the release of President Tinubu’s academic records.

A deposition is the process of taking a sworn, out-of-court oral testimony of a witness, which may be reduced to a written transcript for use in court.

Speaking on the certificate presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by Tinubu, Caleb Westberg, the university registrar and deponent/witness, said he could not comment on it because he did not see it.

“The university only has diplomas that students didn’t pick up in its possession. The university does not typically keep diplomas. I do not have the diploma that was submitted to INEC in our possession,” he said.

He also said when there is a replacement diploma, “it is done by outside vendors”.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had subpoenaed the CSU to release Tinubu’s academic records for use in the Nigerian Supreme Court.

Abubakar is challenging the victory of Tinubu in the February 25 election and the affirmation of Tinubu by the petition tribunal as winner of the poll.

Abubakar had argued that there are discrepancies in the certificate Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which should have rendered him ineligible to contest the election.

During the deposition, Westberg said it is not uncommon for mistakes to be made in data entries from time to time.

“Before CSU, I was at UC, Berkeley and UC, Irving. I’m sure people make mistakes in data entry from time to time,” he said.