The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has said the ongoing legal brawl between him and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is going to be a fight to finish.
He, however, vowed to surrender if the Supreme Court ultimately rules in Tinubu’s favour.
“I am not ready to back down from this course.” Atiku was quoted as saying.
Atiku also clarified that by trying to retrieve his mandate through legal means, he has not in any way betrayed Tinubu, insisting that the reputation of Nigeria is at stake and that his co-contestants, Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) should also join him in retrieving his mandate.
He spoke Thursday at a press conference held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.
Atiku, a former Vice President, contested in the February 25 Presidential poll, where Tinubu was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the fiercely contested election.
Dissatisfied by the outcome, Atiku approached the court where he challenged the victory of the president.
And in its verdict, the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) struck out his petition for lacking in merit.
But despite the PEPT ruling, Atiku continued his case at the US court, insisting the allegation of forgery which was dismissed by the tribunal was unfair.
Atiku seeks to include the released Chicago University documents in his appeal at the Supreme Court.
In his argument, he held that there were discrepancies in the certificate Tinubu submitted to the INEC which should have rendered him ineligible to contest the election.
However, just a few days ago, Tinubu lost a bid to block his academic records from being released as Judge Nancy L. Maldonado in case No. 23 CV 05099 overruled Tinubu’s emergency application.
…I’m ready to push my case -Atiku
But addressing journalists in Abuja, Atuku said: “I have already filed my appeal against him at the Supreme Court. It is only when the court rules that he is right that I will drop this fight; in other words, I will drop this fight when the court rules because there is no court higher than the Supreme Court.”
Confirming the rumour making the round that Tinubu sent some people to him to drop the case, Atiku told newsmen that he learnt so but that he refused to see them.
“I didn’t even let them come to my house,” he added.
When asked whether he was ready to lose his businesses owing to the current feud between him and Tinubu, Atiku said it had already been taken by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “I am not scared of any businesses being taken away from me. It has already been taken as the former President Buhari revoked the license of a company I co-owned with somebody.”
Beckoning on Obi and Kwankwaso to join him in fighting for justice for the country, he said the current fight was not for himself but for the country.
“This quest is not for or about Atiku Abubakar; it’s a quest for the enthronement of truth, morality, justice, and accountability in our public affairs,” Atiku said.
“In line with this, let me call on all well-meaning Nigerians, leaders of thought, religious, traditional, community, and political leaders.
“In particular, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP, leaders of political parties in Nigeria, and every single person who loves this country as I do, and who wishes nothing but the best for this country to join me in this campaign to enshrine accountability, and the basic principles of justice, morality, and uprightness in our country and in our government.”
…APC knocks ex-VP
Knocking the ex-VP, National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Felix Morka, urged him to rest his case as his political career has reached a standstill.
In a statement Thursday in Abuja, Morka said the ex-VP should have known better than to demonstrate gross contempt of the highest court by making public comments on a matter he already submitted to the court for adjudication.
According to the APC, the major take-away 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.
The party said: “In desperation, unbecoming of a statesman who once occupied the second highest office in the land, the PDP candidate in the last election has thrown every decency, decorum, dignity and national respectability out of 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.
“Alhaji 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 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.”
..Party recalls CSU’s position
Continuing, the party spokesman said: “Just for the record, we wish to provide some clarity on the matter of the deposition of Mr. Caleb Westberg, the Registrar of Chicago State University, last Tuesday under oath at the Chicago office of Atiku’s lawyer, Angela Liu, to save unsuspecting Nigerians from barrage of untruths, distortions and campaign of misinformation being dished out by Atiku and his PDP.
“Mr. Westberg was unmistaken and unambiguous in his deposition as to the fact that President Bola Tinubu graduated with honours from Chicago State University. He also emphatically provided clear answers on all other issues raised which we can sum 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 proved studentship at Chicago State University and in any American university is transcript, not 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 point 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 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 statement declared 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.
“It should now be 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 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.
“President Tinubu has undertaken to serve Nigerians and 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.”
