Certificate Forgery: Atiku, Obi lambast BBC for clearing Tinubu
The presidential campaigns of Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party have both rejected the BBC report that there is no proof to support President Bola Tinubu’s accusation of forging diplomas.
In a fact-checking study released on Wednesday, the BBC’s Global Disinformation Team stated that there was no proof Tinubu falsified the Chicago State University diploma he sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission in order to run for president in February.
According to the BBC report, Tinubu did not submit a fake CSU certificate to the INEC as claimed.
The Global Disinformation Team claimed that in order to reach its findings, it fact-checked the most commonly disseminated claims.
The accusation of certificate fabrication against Tinubu has caused controversy in the political arena, with his rivals in the most recent election, Atiku and Obi, criticising the former governor of Lagos State over the charge.
Read Also: CSU releases Tinubu’s records to Atiku, reveals three facts
Reports that the ex-Lagos State governor’s certificate was faked went viral on social media following the release of his CSU academic records.
The release of the president’s academic documents is the culmination of a judicial case filed in August by former Vice President Atiku, who is seeking to overturn Tinubu’s electoral victory at the Supreme Court.
Atiku had accused Tinubu of falsifying the CSU diploma of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration awarded in 1979 that he submitted to the electoral body.
In a move to strengthen his election petition appeal filed at the apex court, the PDP standard bearer asked an Illinois, Chicago court to compel the CSU to release the President’s academic records, including a copy of any diploma issued by CSU in 1979, a copy of the diploma the CSU gave to Tinubu in 1979, copies of diplomas with the same font, seal, signatures, and wording awarded to other students that are similar to what CSU awarded to him in 1979.
He also demanded documents from the CSU that were certified by Jamar Orr, who was then a staff member of the CSU.
Atiku’s application was opposed by Tinubu’s lawyers citing privacy concerns, but the US court decided it should proceed and the school subsequently released the academic records.
In line with the court ruling, Atiku’s lawyer, Angela Liu, questioned the CSU registrar, Caleb Westberg, in a deposition.
The report read, “Some social media users in Nigeria allege that the deposition and the diplomas released by CSU confirm that the diploma submitted to INEC by Mr Tinubu was forged. This claim was also repeated by one of Mr Abubakar’s lawyers, Kalu Kalu, at a press conference last week.
“We found there was no evidence to support this claim. Many social media users in Nigeria have been sharing false or misleading posts about the deposition of Caleb Westberg, the current CSU Registrar.”
