Certificate forgery: Atiku and Obi protest as BBC fact-checkers clear Tinubu

BBC's Global Disinformation Team published a fact-checking report on Wednesday, stating that there was no evidence that Tinubu forged the Chicago State University certificate he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest the February presidential election. The report concluded that the allegation that Tinubu submitted a forged CSU certificate to the INEC was false. The allegation of certificate forgery levelled against Tinubu has been roiling the polity with his opponents in the last election-Atiku and Obi-taking the ex-Lagos State governor to task over the issue.

The release of the president’s academic documents is the culmination of a judicial case filed in August by former Vice President Atiku, who is seeking to overturn Tinubu’s electoral victory at the Supreme Court. Atiku had accused Tinubu of falsifying the CSU diploma of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration awarded in 1979 that he submitted to the electoral body. In a move to strengthen his election petition appeal filed at the apex court, the PDP standard bearer asked an Illinois, Chicago court to compel the CSU to release the President’s academic records, including a copy of any diploma issued by CSU in 1979, a copy of the diploma the CSU gave to Tinubu in 1979, copies of diplomas with the same font, seal, signatures, and wording awarded to other students that are similar to what CSU awarded to him in 1979. He also demanded documents from the CSU that were certified by Jamar Orr, who was then a staff member of the CSU.

The report read, “Some social media users in Nigeria allege that the deposition and the diplomas released by CSU confirm that the diploma submitted to INEC by Mr. Tinubu was forged. This claim was also repeated by one of Mr. Abubakar’s lawyers, Kalu Kalu, at a press conference last week. The BBC found there was no evidence to support this claim. Many social media users in Nigeria have been sharing false or misleading posts about the deposition of Caleb Westberg, the current CSU Registrar.

In response to the new light shed on the controversy by the British broadcaster, Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, described the report as a hatchet job and claimed that the report “is part of President Tinubu administration’s propaganda programme.” Shaibu called on the BBC and other fact-checkers to be more circumspect, adding that their job was too sensitive to entertain errors.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, but the party’s Deputy National Youth Leader, Timothy Osadolor, insisted that Tinubu’s CSU certificate presented to the INEC was not genuine. He challenged the President to put the information in the public in the right perspective and urged the Labour Party leadership to toe the part of honor like the BBC of old.