The Presidency has debunked claims that President Bola Tinubu’s certificate presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was forged.
Tinubu’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, said the Chicago State University confirmed that the president didn’t submit a fake result to INEC.
Ajayi noted that CSU affirmed under oath that Tinubu attended and graduated from the institution and that the school does not handle replacements for lost certificates.
He said there was no truth in the forgery claim, adding that no person can forge a certificate he already has.
In his statement on his official X handle, Ajayi wrote: “We should be clear.
“In the deposition made by the Chicago State University, there was nowhere the University said the certificate presented to INEC by President Tinubu is fake. The University insisted under oath that President Tinubu graduated with honours, and even at that, replacements for lost certificates are done by vendors, not the University.
“The claim that President Tinubu submitted a fake certificate to INEC does not make sense. A man can not forge the academic records he possesses. You can only forge what you don’t have.”
Following a petition by the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, CSU had released Tinubu’s academic records on court orders.
Atiku had requested the documents to back his allegation of forgery of the CSU certificate against Tinubu.
The presidential election court dismissed the allegation of forgery in the suit Atiku filed to challenge Tinubu’s election.