Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been sued by a lawyer named Mike Enahoro-Ebah. The lawsuit is based on claims that Tinubu forged certificates, lied about his age, and lied under oath.
Enahoro-Ebah filed three separate criminal complaints against Tinubu with the Chief Magistrate Court in Wuse Zone 6, Abuja.
In the cases dated November 9, 2022, and filed by the lawyer on November 10, 2022, he said that Tinubu lied under oath by falsely swearing to an affidavit in support of his personal particulars (Form EC-9) that he gave to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on June 17, 2022.
He also said that Tinubu gave INEC a fake certificate from Chicago State University with the hope that it would be taken as real. This is against Sections 362(a), 363 and 364 of the Penal Code Act, Cap. 532, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The lawyer said that he sent an application through his colleague Mathew Kowals, a lawyer in Chicago. On August 12, Kowals sent a subpoena to the university in case number 22-L-007289, telling the school to send him (Kowals) all documents and records they have about Tinubu.
The lawyer said that later, copies of the Chicago State University Certificate, academic records, an application for undergraduate admission, a University of Cambridge General Certificate of Education, and a copy of the Southwest College Transcript (now City College of Chicago) were sent to him. He used these copies as evidence in court.
He said that the copy of the Chicago State University Certificate released by the school “is very different” from the copy attached to Tinubu’s sworn Form EC-9 that he sent to INEC on June 17.
He says that a direct comparison of the two certificates shows that they were given out by the university on different dates (June 22 and June 27), have different university logos, are written in different ways, and have different signatures, among other things.
He said that a transcript from Southwest College in Chicago with the name “Tinubu Bola A,” which belongs to a female student, was sent with the defendant’s undergraduate admission application to Chicago State University in 1977. This was different from the Form EC-9 that was sent to INEC, which said that Tinubu is a man.
The lawyer also said that Tinubu, who went to the university, said on his application to be an undergraduate student that he graduated from Government College, Lagos, in 1970, while the defendant’s Form EC-9, which he sent to INEC, didn’t say anything about him going to Government College, Lagos.
He said that it would be best for Nigeria, justice, and fairness to send Tinubu a criminal summons to force him to show up in court to answer the complaints.
Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Iyanna is in charge of the case, but there hasn’t been a date set for a hearing.