Lawyer Drags APC Presidential Candidate To Court
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been dragged to court over an alleged certificate forgery, falsification of age, and lying on oath.
Naija News reports that a legal practitioner and human rights activist, Mike Enahoro-Ebah, instituted the case against the former Lagos State governor.
Mike Enahoro-Ebah filed three separate direct criminal complaints at the Chief Magistrate Court at Wuse Zone 6, Abuja.
While the lawyer is the complainant, Tinubu is the sole defendant in the cases marked: CR/121/2022, CR/122/2022, and CR/123/2022, respectively.
The matters, dated November 9 and filed on November 10, 2022, by the lawyer himself, were brought pursuant to Sections 88(1), 89(3), 109(A), 110(C), and 115(1)(B) and 119 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015; under the inherent jurisdiction and powers of the court secured by Section 6(6)(a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
He accused Tinubu of lying under oath, having falsely sworn to an affidavit in support of his personal particulars (Form EC-9) submitted to INEC on June 17, 2022.
In case number: CR/121/2022, Enahoro-Ebah alleged that Tinubu presented “a forged Chicago State University Certificate to INEC with intent that it may be acted upon as genuine, thereby committed the offence of forgery contrary to Sections 362(a), 363 and 364 of the Penal Code Act, Cap. 532, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”
He said he applied through his colleague, Mathew J. Kowals, a Chicago-based legal practitioner, who issued an attorney subpoena on his behalf against the university in case number: 22-L-007289 on August 12, directing the school to mail him (Kowals) all documents and records pertaining to Tinubu in their possession.
Enahoro-Ebah said copies of the Chicago State University Certificate, academic records, undergraduate admission application form, University of Cambridge General Certificate of Education, and copy of Southwest College Transcript (now City College of Chicago) were later sent to him which he attached to the court documents as exhibits.
Curiously, the information contained in the documents and school records received from Chicago State University contradict material information provided by the defendant in his sworn Form EC-9 submitted to INEC,” he said
Enahoro-Ebah alleged that the APC presidential candidate that attended Chicago State University was born in 1954 and not 1952, as claimed by Tinubu on oath in his sworn Form EC-9 submitted to INEC.
He alleged that the Chicago State University Certificate released by the school “is radically different” from the copy attached to Tinubu’s sworn Form EC-9 submitted to INEC on June 17.
According to him, a direct comparison of both certificates reveals different dates of issue by the university (June 22, 1979, and June 27, 1979); different university logos on both certificates; different grammatical construction on faces of the certificates, and different signatures, among others.
He said in support of the defendant’s undergraduate admission application form submitted to Chicago State University in 1977, was a transcript from Southwest College, Chicago, bearing the name “Tinubu Bola A,” which belongs to a female student, contrary to Form EC-9 submitted to INEC which indicated that Tinubu is a man.
He further alleged that the Tinubu, that attended the university, indicated in his undergraduate admission application form that he graduated from Government College, Lagos, in 1970, while the defendant, in his Form EC-9 submitted to INEC, provided no information as to his attendance of the said Government College, Lagos, among other allegations.
He said it is in the best interest of Nigeria, justice, and equity to issue criminal summons to ensure Tinubu’s court attendance to answer the complaints
It was reported that Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Iyanna is yet to schedule a date for a hearing.
