The minister of aviation and aerospace development, Mr Festus Keyamo said there is no evidence that President Bola Tinubu forged the Chicago State University certificate hence he (Tinubu) will be exonerated when Nigeria’s Supreme Court adjudicates on the matter.
Recall that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the February 25 Nigerian presidential election, Mr Atiku Abuibakar had approached an American court to mandate the CSU to release details of Tinubu’s academic records.
The documents made available to Atiku showed that the replacement certificate Tinubu has been parading was not issued by the university.
The school provided certificates of students who obtained their diplomas in 1979, and they differ from the replacement certificate the president submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the 2023 election.
It was also found that the Southwest College transcript that Tinubu used to get admitted to Chicago State University belongs to a female.
Besides, it was discovered that the Bola A. Tinubu who applied to Southwest College for an associate degree in 1975 claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos, and presented a 1970 GCE A-level result with grades E in Chemistry and Biology and an F in Physics whereas the school was established in 1974.
However, taking to his X, the minister Keyamo the Supreme Court will find Tinubu not guilty of any wrong doing.
He said Tinubu is as clean and white as snow on the matter while reiterating that reiterating that his principal will be vindicated by the apex court.
He argued that CSU itself stated that it does not issue certificates and that vendors instead do so on behalf of the institution, stressing that any criticism of the forgery allegation is futile until the vendor who issued Tinubu’s replacement certificate denies its authenticity.
“Addressing the controversies that arose this week, after the Chicago State University (CSU) revealed Tinubu’s academic records, Keyamo insisted that “you cannot allege or prove forgery except the purported maker of the document denies its authenticity”.
“When some comments or perceptions of otherwise plain and simple issues are so moronic, mischievous, or downright odious, they really do not deserve a response because you’d be dignifying idiocy. But let me drop this here for posterity.
“I have been a defence and prosecution lawyer at the highest level in criminal trials for more than 30 years. You cannot allege or prove forgery except the purported maker of the document denies its authenticity or there is uncontradicted evidence of a forensic report that categorically says the document was deliberately altered or concocted by the person who uttered (in a legal sense) or issued it.
“Applying this principle to the case of Atiku Abubakar V Chicago State University, so long as the University openly said THEY DO NOT ISSUE replacement certificates, but that vendors do so on their behalf, all these noise about so-called forgery are useless until the particular vendor that issued the replacement certificate to @officialABAT denies its authenticity. And it is the duty of the accuser to fish out the said vendor and get that evidence. It is not the other way round. He who alleges must prove.
“This is the simple principle I laid down in 2019 during our defence of President Buhari that has been so mischievously celebrated as if they have hit the bull’s eye. Unfortunately for them, @officialABAT (Tinubu) is as clean and white as snow on this issue and we are again waiting for them at the Supreme Court.
“As for Atiku Abubakar (the famed SPV king and the one who disgraced Nigeria internationally with the money-laundering case involving Congressman William Jefferson), we acknowledge the valedictory speech he delivered a few days ago signifying his retirement from politics and we wish him godspeed in that retirement,” Keyamo wrote.
