An Abuja-based lawyer and rights activist, Mr. Mike Enahoro-Ebah has dragged the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu to court over alleged certificate forgery, age falsification and lying on oath.
Enahoro-Ebah in three separate direct criminal complaints filed at the Chief Magistrate Court in Wuse Zone 6, Abuja, alleged that Tinubu supplied false information as well as attached forged documents to his form EC-9 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on June 17, 2022, to aid his qualification for the 2023 presidential election.
The three suits marked: CR/121/2022, CR/122/2022 and CR/123/2022 respectively, were filed on November 10, 2022 with Tinubu as the sole defendant.
The complainant in suit number: CR/121/2022, alleged that the APC’s presidential candidate and former Lagos State governor 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.”
The complainant disclosed that there were contradictions between what Tinubu claimed and submitted to INEC and documents he obtained from institutions Tinubu claimed to have attended.
According to him, he had applied for the said documents through his colleague, one 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.
He claimed that copies of 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.
He said, “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.”
The complainant further alleged that while the year of birth of the Tinubu that attended Chicago State University was 1954, that on the Form EC-9 submitted to INEC by the presidential candidate carries 1952.
Complainant also alleged that the copy of 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 revealed different dates of issue by the university (June 22, 1979 and June 27, 1979); different university logo on both certificates; different grammatical construction on faces of the certificates, 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 was in the best interest of Nigeria, justice and equity to issue criminal summons to ensure Tinubu’s attendance in court to answer to the complaints.
The case, which is before Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Iyanna, is yet to be scheduled for hearing.
