By the vibes coming from the camp of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Bola Tinubu, might as well be wasting his time in trying to conceal his academic records with the Chicago State University (CSU), because the details are in already in its firm grips.

This is coming as the Nigerian President, on Monday, pleaded with a United States District Judge, Nancy Maldonado, to order the institution to protect his privileged information such as admission records, transcripts and gender and release only his certificate to the legal team of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Pedro Obaseki, Director of Research and Strategy of the Atiku/Okowa 2023 Presidential Campaign Council, while alleging that the claim by Tinubu that the release of his record to the public would cause him personal pain was because the owner of the disputed certificate is a woman.

Speaking at a Zoom conference hosted by a London-based psychologist, Gold Emmanuel on Monday, Obaseki, said CSU would only confirm what Atiku’s camp already knew by making public the record of Tinubu who graduated from the institution in the late 70s.

He said: “Nigerians will be more demoralised that the owner of the certificate that President Tinubu is parading is a woman. We already know it as a fact, but we are seeking the release of the documents officially by CSU. Wetin the man dey hide, we already have it. The outcome will give many Nigerians more heart attacks.”

Coming against the backdrop of the former Vice President, securing an order from a US magistrate, Jeffrey Gilbert, for CSU to make Tinubu’s academic records available to his legal team, Tinubu argued through Christopher Carmichael, his lawyer that “the most critical fact has already been clearly and unequivocally established” the CSU and that Atiku had got all he needed in the matter.

Atiku, had through Angela Liu, his own lawyer sought Tinubu’s records, including his admission and acceptance at CSU, dates of attendance, degrees, awards and honours attained by the former governor of Lagos State at the university, among others.

Tinubu had approached Maldonado, shortly after the ruling of the lower court to seek extension of time, specifically praying for the order to be delayed till Monday, to enable its review by a district judge, which was granted.

In his fresh argument, the President pleaded with Maldonado to release only the certificate and preclude Tinubu’s other privileged records, saying: “The most critical fact has already been clearly and unequivocally established by Chicago State University: Intervenor was awarded the degree as he stated. This point is irrelevant to the applicant because he is not seeking anything more than opposition research on a political opponent.

“The magistrate judge clearly erred in granting the application for discovery and concluding that Chicago State University must respond to the document and deposition subpoenas. That conclusion should be set aside and the application should be denied because the information sought cannot be used and therefore is not ‘for use’ in the foreign proceedings.

“Even if a narrow subset of information can be considered ‘for use’ in the foreign proceeding, that is limited to the diploma submitted to INEC. Fishing expeditions into other documents and more document productions must be precluded.”

The development is coming two days after the self-acclaimed classmate of the President, Olajide Adeniji, testified in the US district court that he knows and contested against Tinubu as President of the Accounting Society Club at the Department of Business Admin/Accounting in the same Chicago State University.

In the oath he took on September 23 at the Northern District of Illinois Court in Chicago, Adeniji swore that he was familiar with the same Tinubu who is the current President of Nigeria.

The PUNCH, however reports that Atiku is insisting that all the details, quoting his spokesman, Phrank Shaibu, as saying: “We are aware Tinubu’s counsel filed a motion on Monday praying the US court to order Chicago State University to release only the president’s certificate.

“We are wondering why a man will demand they conceal his gender and other little details in his academic transcript. But we (Atiku’s legal team) will respond to them in the next 48 hours. The judgment will be entered by Wednesday or Thursday.”

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State Governor, is singing a victory song again as the challenge launched by Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (GRV) of the Labour Party (LP) and Babajide Adediran, alias Jandor of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against his victory in the March 18 governorship election in the state, has come to naught.

The Lagos State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, on Monday, threw out the petitions of both candidates and their parties against Sanwo-Olu, while affirming him as the rightfully elected governor of Lagos State, the second time he would be victorious both at the polls and the tribunal, clearing the way for an enjoyment of another term of four years, which began on May 29, 2023.

The tribunal, not only threw out the contentions of both the LP, which came second and his PDP counterpart that came third on grounds of non-qualification, but also dismissed other claims, particularly by GRV, that he did not score the highest valid votes in the highly contentious election.

The argument made by the petitioners on both grounds lacked merit, the three-member panel headed by Justice Arum Ashom, with Igho Braimoh and Mikhail Abdullah who read the lead judgement, held, adding specifically in the case of Jandor, who had questioned Sanwo-Olu’s educational qualification, that the governor was educated up to secondary school, as envisaged by law.

Specifically Abdullahi stated both his governor and his deputy were members of the APC but also had the requisite education, stressed that section 177 of the constitution stipulated that: “A person shall be qualified for election to the office of governor of a state if: (a) he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth; (b) he has attained the age of thirty-five years; (c) he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party; and (d) he has been educated up to at least a School Certificate level or its equivalent.

“We have considered the evidence before this court. He has the highest number of votes. This petition is dead on arrival in view of the evidence adduced before the court. The grounds on which the petitioners are seeking disqualification of 2nd and 3rd respondents lack merit. I have found Gov Sanwo-Olu and deputy Hamzat duly elected and therefore declared the winner.”

David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark, 75-year-old former Senate President, could be the next National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), if the current push in that direction by some tendencies within the political family succeed.

TheCable reports that the camp loyal to Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is pushing for Mark, a retired military officer who was Chairman of the National Assembly for a record 12 years, to replace Iyorchia Ayu, who was ousted from the office immediately after the 2023 general elections.

The paper, quoted sources, as saying that those rooting for him believe him to have the capacity to deal with “renegade” party members who are involved in “anti-party activities,” and capable of giving it the direction it requires, especially in dealing with the Nyesom Wike factor.

The PDP has been without a substantive chairman since March 2023 with the ouster of Iyorchia Ayu, also a former senate president, following his suspension at the ward level of the party in Benue state, since the exit of Ayu who is from the same Benue state with Mark, Senate President from 2007 to 2015.

Umar Ililya Damagum became the acting national chairman but the Atiku camp is reportedly uncomfortable with him as he is seen to be close to Wike, former governor of Rivers State and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Bola Tinubu.

Atiku’s biggest supporters — Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa, Babangida Aliyu, former governor of Niger, and Adamu Maina Waziri, former minister — once tried to moved against the acting chairman but pulled back because of a possible backlash.

Wike, who lost the presidential primary to Atiku in May 2022, led a group of five governors that openly opposed Atiku in the 2023 presidential election.

The paper quoted a source as saying: “You would expect the PDP to have suspended or expelled Wike by now for his anti-party activities, worsened by his acceptance of a ministerial appointment from a rival party. But it is very clear that the national working committee is in Wike’s pocket, so we should not expect any form of discipline in the party.”

Mark, a retired brigadier, former military governor of Niger state and former ministry of communication, is a founding member of PDP and has never defected from the party.

Another source, who was quoted as saying that others being considered as next PDP chairman are Bukola Saraki, former senate president, and Gabriel Suswam, former governor of Benue state, reportedly added that the issue of chairmanship would be “on hold” for now until after the presidential election petition was finally settled by the Supreme Court.