The United States District Court in Northern Illinois has given Chicago State University (CSU) 48 hours, starting from Saturday, to release President Bola Tinubu’s academic records to the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.

In a ruling delivered on Saturday, the judge, Nancy Maldonado, after dismissing Tinubu’s objection, gave the university until 12 noon on Monday to release the documents to Atiku.

Maldonando dismissed Tinubu’s objection to the 20 September decision of a magistrate judge of the court, Jeffery Gilbert.

The judge on Saturday fully affirmed Gilbert’s ruling ordering the CSU to release the records as requested by Atiku.

She insisted Atiku had the right to have access to the records.

“For the reasons stated in the Court’s accompanying Memorandum Opinion and Order, the Court overrules Tinubu’s objections (44] and adopts Judge Gilbert’s recommended decision [40] in full.

“The Court therefore grants Abubakar’s application under 28 U.S.C. § 1782. [1],” Maldonado ruled.

She said the CSU must complete all necessary filings with regard to the release by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

“Respondent CSU is directed to produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to Requests for Production Nos. 1 through 4 (as narrowed by Judge Gilbert and adopted by the District Court in its opinion) in Abubakar’s subpoena, by 12:00 p.m. (noon) CDT, on Monday, October 2, 2023.

“The Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of CSU’s corporate designee must be completed by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2023,” the court ordered.

Atiku had asked for the documents for use in Nigerian courts to support his argument that Tinubu forged a diploma certificate he claimed to have obtained from CSU in 1979 and submitted to Nigeria’s electoral body, INEC, for the 2023 presidential election.

This, Atiku argued, goes to the root of Tinubu’s qualification to contest the last presidential election.

Although Atiku lost his case against Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal which delivered its judgement in early September, he hopes to reintroduce the issue backed with the documents from the CSU in his appeal which he is pursuing against the election court’s decision at the Nigerian Supreme Court.

Atiku had told the US district court that he had up to 5 October to file the documents from the CSU against Tinubu at the Supreme Court.

Tinubu mounted stiff opposition to the release of the documents to Atiku, arguing that “the Nigerian election proceedings and the Nigerian courts” had explicitly rejected the documents Atiku sought to obtain and tender in his case aimed at overturning the results of the 25 presidential elections.

Tinubu’s second reason is that Atiku’s request “is unduly intrusive because it allows Applicant (Atiku) to conduct a fishing expedition into Intervenor’s private, confidential, and protected educational records.”

But dismissing Tinubu’s objection on Saturday, Maldonado said she was only affirming Atiku’s right to have access to the CSU documents, not confirming the merit of his allegations against the Nigerian president or his comments on the validity of the country’s presidential election.

“In reaching this conclusion, the Court emphasises that it is expressing no view on the merits of Abubakar’s underlying claims regarding Tinubu or his graduation from CSU, or on the validity of the Nigerian election.

“Nor is the Court taking any position on what any of the documents or testimony from CSU may or may not ultimately show. The Court simply finds, on the narrow question before it, that Abubakar is entitled to the production of documents and testimony that he seeks from CSU,” a summary of the judgement read in part.