The All Progressives Congress (APC) has berated former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over some of the utterances he made on Thursday at a world press conference over President Bola Tinubu’s certificate saga.
Atiku called the conference aftermath of the deposition made by the Chicago State University over the diploma obtained by Mr Tinubu from the university in 1979.
In the deposition, the university said President Tinubu did graduate from the university as he claimed.
The former VP and PDP presidential candidate in the 2023 election said he would not back down from the case until the Supreme Court delivers its final judgement on the case.
In a statement on Thursday, however, the APC said the press conference lacked purpose and delivered nothing “except the pitiful regurgitation of lies, mindless distortions and deliberate falsehood on his infantile obsession with the academic record of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
For several weeks now, the party noted in the statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, Nigerians and the world have watched with incredulity Atiku’s display of utter desperation in his failed bid to become the President of Nigeria.
The statement noted that the former vice president put his desperation in overdrive during his press conference where he addressed some of the issues in his appeal at the Supreme Court and bandying unproven charges against the President of Nigeria, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a calculated attempt to shamelessly whip up public sentiments and inordinately pressure the Supreme Court.
“We believe Atiku should have known better than to demonstrate gross contempt of the highest court by making public comments on a matter that he has submitted to the court for adjudication.
“The major takeaway from his Yar’Adua Centre show, especially at question time, was that Atiku harbours deep animosity towards Tinubu whom he believes was responsible for his electoral woes in 2007, 2015, 2019 and this year,” a part of the statement noted.
The statement said that Atiku has thrown every decency, decorum, dignity and national respectability out through the window on his purposeless judicial voyage of discovery to the United States in search of a magic wand for taking power against the will of the Nigerian electorate loudly expressed in last February’s presidential election.
“Atiku Abubakar holds the unenviable title of Nigeria’s most prolific election loser and longest-running presidential candidate in history, and we see his recent US fishing expedition as the last kick of a roundly rejected presidential aspirant.
While we sympathise with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for spending a lifetime pursuing an unrealised dream, we strongly condemn the perfidious road he has taken and the needless negative exposure of Nigeria and the institution of the Presidency in foreign land,” the statement said.
Party provides more “clarity” on deposition by CSU
In the statement, the APC also offered more clarity on the deposition concerning the certificate by the registrar of the university Caleb Westberg under oath at the Chicago office of Atiku’s lawyer, Angela Liu.
The party said it decided to provide the clarity to “save unsuspecting Nigerians from the barrage of untruths, distortions and campaign of misinformation being dished out by Atiku and his PDP.
Mr Westberg, according to the APC, was unmistaken and unambiguous in his deposition as to the fact Mr Tinubu graduated with honours from Chicago State University.
Also, the party said that the Registrar also emphatically provided clear answers on all other issues raised which it summed as follows:
1. That the person who is Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is the same person who attended Chicago State University.
2. He confirmed that a certain gentleman called Adeniji who had come forward to say he was Tinubu’s classmate was in fact a student at CSU at the same time and they both ran for student union positions.
3. Mr Westberg said the diploma certificate, on which the PDP and Atiku seek to gaslight Nigerians and the whole world, is just a ceremonial document and what proves studentship at Chicago State University and in any American university is the transcript, not a certificate.
Furthermore, he stated that the ‘F’ on the Southwest college certificate, a feeder institution to CSU, which President Bola Tinubu used to gain admission into CSU was a clerical error which could of course happen. He reiterated that Southwest College was a major feeder source for CSU.
4. He said the person admitted based on the transcript from South West College, was a male Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Westberg also added the courses taken by President Bola Tinubu at Southwest College were consistent with the courses he took at CSU.
Westberg further deposed that Accounting is a rigorous field of study. Anyone who did not take the requisite courses at the lower levels could not have done well at CSU.
In President Tinubu’s case, he did excellently well at CSU. He graduated with High Honours. That to him points to the fact that the person who attended and graduated from CSU was the same person who went to Southwest College
5. He pointed out that CSU has had at least six Registrars since 1979 and in an affidavit at an Illinois court prior to the deposition said “Chicago State University provided a diploma to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and subsequently provided a certified (or official) copy of that diploma. Both are valid and authentic diplomas of Chicago State University”.
“He said further that the difference in the date of award on the diploma versus the certified copy is likely the result of human error. The graduation date on the certified copy is typed in manually by a person and can be inaccurate”.
6. Mr Westberg noted that by practice, CSU does not replace certificates for students as they are issued by 3rd party vendors which is also a common practice by other US universities. The proof of attendance and graduation remains in the transcripts.
7. There is also no part of Mr Westberg’s deposition where he said that the certificate President Bola Tinubu presented to INEC for his election is fake or was forged. All the insinuations and innuendos in this regard are pure mischief and should be disregarded. President Tinubu could not have forged a university degree he honourably earned because there is no advantage to derive from such and no incentive to do so.
The party noted that it is now clear to all Nigerians that despite Atiku’s lies before the Illinois Court that he wanted to use the discoveries in pursuit of his appeal at the Supreme Court, he has rather chosen to use the same as an instrument of mischief and blackmail in clear contempt of the highest court of the land.
“We want to urge former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to graciously accept his defeat and quietly lick his political wound with some dignity. Nigerians rejected him at the polls, and he cannot get by subterfuge what he failed to get through the ballot box,” the statement said.
The party said that Nigerians validly elected President Tinubu to “revamp our economy, restore security, create jobs, provide transformative infrastructure, improve electricity supply and enhance the living conditions of the masses.
President Tinubu, the party noted, has undertaken to serve Nigerians, saying “he will not be distracted by a man who has consistently failed to achieve his self-serving and brutal quest to become Nigeria’s president.”
Signed:
Felix Morka, Esq.
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
(PREMIUM TIMES)
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