Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 poll, has asked the United States court for the Northern District of Illinois to overrule President Bola Tinubu’s objections to the release of his academic records.
Atiku had secured an order for Chicago State University (CSU) to make the president’s academic records available to his legal team.
The Nation reports that President Tinubu also filed an appeal against the order of the court directing the CSU to release his academic records to Abubakar.
Tinubu had argued that he ought to have been joined in the suit since it is his personal information that is being sought.
The President had also argued through his lawyers that what Abubakar was doing amounted to a “fishing expedition” because the deadline for the use of fresh documents in Nigerian courts had elapsed.
However, in a fresh application to the US court dated September 27, Abubakar through his attorneys, Angela Liu, Andrew Levander, Alexandre de Gramont, Tooba Hussain, argued that the documents he is seeking can still be used in election litigation back home in Nigeria.
Abubakar is also asking the court to overrule Tinubu’s objections in their entirety.
“The court should overrule the objections in their entirety,” the application reads.
“If the court overrules the objections, applicant respectfully requests that it enter an order requiring production of documents no later than October 2, 2023, and the deposition scheduled no later than October 3, to allow time for transcripts to be finalised.”
Abubakar said: “The discovery obtained” should “be sent to Nigeria (which is six (6) hours ahead) by October 4 so that such evidence may, in turn, be filed with the Supreme Court by October 5, which is when applicant’s Nigerian counsel intend to submit any new evidence to the Supreme Court”.
Abubakar also argued that “the Supreme Court of Nigeria can consider new evidence in ‘exceptional circumstances’ under the Nigerian Electoral Act of 2022 and/or in its discretion.”