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Blame Chicago varsity for gender mix-up – Tinubu *Says its conspiracy theories

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“The quoted and referenced portion of the Nigerian court filing parrots conspiracy theories about President Tinubu, including that the degree from Chicago State University really belongs to a female named Bola Tinubu. That conspiracy theory is not an asserted basis for discovery.”

These were the exact words with which President Bola Tinubu, tried once again to puncture the case where former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar is battling at a US court for an order to the Chicago State University to release the official records of his two-year stay of the university, between 1977 and 1979.

Tinubu while begging a federal judge in the United States to ignore records that suggested the person who was admitted into the university was a female, said Atiku Abubakar, who as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), squared up against him in the 2023 presidential election, as candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was trying to sandbag him in the ongoing case over academic documents.

“It is established beyond peradventure that it is improper to sandbag one’s opponent by raising new matter in reply,” Christopher Carmichael, Tinubu’s lawyer, said in a September 11 filing before Judge Jeffrey Gilbert of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

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The response seemed a last-minute push to downplay tomorrow’s hearing by Gilbert, who had recommended that all parties appear before the court on Tuesday afternoon amid strong indications a ruling was imminent in the matter.

Abubakar was asking the court to grant enough subpoenas to compel records and depositions from CSU amid controversy Mr Tinubu’s admission and graduation. The school has continued to present contradictory documents that often throw up more questions than previously conceived.

For instance, at least two different certificates issued by the school in Tinubu’s name are in the public domain. One was issued directly to Tinubu, while the other was issued to a Nigerian lawyer who obtained a subpoena for the records last year.  The one given to Tinubu said he graduated on June 22, 1979, having been admitted in 1977, while the one issued to the Nigerian lawyer, Mike Enahoro-Ebah, carried June 27, 1979.

Still, additional records of admission submitted by CSU under the 2022 subpoena showed that a certain Bola Tinubu, who was admitted to CSU also in the same 1977, presented a Southwest College result belonging to a female.

Furthermore, Elnora Daniel, the CSU president who purportedly signed the 2022 certificate for Tinubu, only joined the school in 1998, or 19 years after Tinubu was said to have graduated. She left in 2008 following a financial mismanagement scandal, or 14 years before she purportedly signed the certificate as the current president of the school.

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These, among other jarring anomalies in the CSU records, have rendered Abubakar no choice but to seek full disclosure under subpoena from the school, his lawyers said. The Nigerian politician intends to use the records in his ongoing judicial challenge to Tinubu’s election earlier this year, arguing that the president’s several instances of falsified records should be enough to nullify his eligibility to continue in office.

But Tinubu’s lawyers, noticing the controversy the Southwest College record generated around Tinubu’s identity, told the courts that it was a conspiracy theory and not the fault of the Nigerian leader, without mentioning that the suggestion actually came from CSU records for Mr Tinubu.

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Tinubu is gone – Babachir *Shettima, Okowa, 20 govs lost their states in 2023

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If 21 governors including Ifeanyi Okowa, running mate to Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential election could lose their states in the presidential election and a “special magic” had to be performed to save Kashim Shettima, the Vice President from embarrassment of losing his home Borno State, nobody should lose sleep even if the entire governor of the 36 states empty into the same party.

This was the response of Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to the mass defection of political office holders including state governors into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in support of the re-election of President Bola Tinubu.

A guest of The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS television network, the former SGF, said nobody should lose sleep over the development as electoral victory resided with the people and not the governors or any other political figure, as they were incapable of influencing anything.

The former SGF said the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, is a committed and active member of the group championing the coalition campaign to wrest power from President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.

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Lawal, also took a swipe at governors and political leaders from the North West, who recently endorsed Tinubu, saying their was no basis for doing so since their zone has remained the most ravaged by activities of criminals in the mode of terrorists and bandits, adding all they did was to lie and deceive the people.

His words: Most of the politicians that are defecting to APC are probably driven by the desire to safeguard their stomachs and to safeguard their luxurious lifestyles that they had acquired while in government, using the people’s money. To them, it’s okay. They can go that way because that’s what they chose to do.

“As for defections, I saw a study last week that showed that 21 governors could not deliver their states to their preferred candidates, which means that the governors have little influence on the voter at the polling unit. Yes, within the party platforms, they have their influences. They can rig the party primaries. A Senator for example who is out of favour with his governor is endangered in that sense because the governor might not give him his return ticket. He could just order everybody not to vote for him.

“But no governor can influence the voter. Take for example, Delta State. The Vice-Presidential candidate for PDP was the serving governor on seat. But he could not deliver. Peter Obi beat them flat. In those days, they will say he lost deposit. In Borno State, it is well-known that the Vice President could not deliver Borno State to the APC until they did magic on the result so that he’s not embarrassed.

“But he knows, the voters know that he was disgraced woefully. So, defection is nothing. It is just the character of the person. Somebody without character will easily abandon you when his interest is threatened rather than when the interest of the masses are threatened.

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“So, that is my position, we’re not bothered about defections. It will continue to happen. In 2027, we’ll go to the polls and we’ll see the result. People from the North West shamelessly gathered themselves, drank tea and coffee and said they endorse Bola Tinubu. To do what? “There’s no place in the North West that is safe. The poverty level in the North West is so huge and so terrible, much more than anywhere else. If their so-called leaders choose that it is the path they want, then, good luck. But everybody knows that they’re just liars. They’re deceiving themselves and they’re deceiving their own people.

“If somebody from the Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kaduna, says he’s endorsing Tinubu because his security policies are working, he’s a shameless liar. Whatever induced them to say that is between them and their God and their conscience. But Nigerians know that it is not so. Insecurity has now grown; in places it was not before, it has expanded. They have not done anything.

“This government should better not talk about insecurity. When talking about it, about the economy, it is exactly the same thing. The poverty has multiplied exponentially. Even those who were doing well feel now threatened because there’s no economy, it has collapsed, completely collapsed.

“We are just surviving by the grace of God on a hand to mouth basis, everybody. So what economy? They are putting money that doesn’t arrive in Nigeria before it is spent, even when it arrives in Nigeria, they spend it on intangible things that we cannot show, that are not visible, you know.

“Economy is not for this government, it is not their intention, their attention is to run down this country. That is their intention. But now, it appeared that he just deceived us in those days all along, and now he has gotten the power and is in the mood to ruin the economy, to ruin the security of the country.”

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The former APC chieftain, also spoke about the coalition of political leaders in Nigeria to end the tenure of Tinubu, in which he acknowledged being deeply involved say the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had no place in it, having been infested with an “incurable virus.”

His words: “In all the meetings I’ve attended so far, nobody has ever bothered about adopting the PDP as the platform. We all agree that PDP has an incurable virus. No anti-biotics can cure what is ailing the PDP and we don’t want to go into a house that we cannot modify that is not willing to change.”

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TRAGEDY! Ibadan-bound truck, loses control, rams into market in Lagos

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A truck heading to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital from Lagos, on Wednesday morning, reportedly lost control as a result of brake failure and rammed into the Isheri market at OPIC junction, along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

Channels Television reports that the incident led to the death of one person identified as a tea seller, while an unconfirmed number of people also sustained injuries from the impact, quoting an witnesses who was at the scene of the accident.

The source, a commercial motorcycle operator, was quoted as saying: “I’m the security man of this place. Every morning, I sit with my people before they open for the day because I work at night. I had just called the tea seller to give me tea, and I had only tasted it once when I heard loud noises.

“I stood up, and the truck pushed me and I fell. It’s God that saved me that I fell to the right side, assuming I followed the other side I would have died. The man who gives me tea is the one who died.

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“While I was at OPIC bus stop roundabout, a container coming from Lagos reached OPIC bus stop. When he was coming, there was no traffic on the express, he didn’t have brakes when he tried to enter the estate, he then crashed into the market and killed a person,” the motorcyclist said.

The report, also said that emergency responders and local authorities have arrived at the scene and the truck driver has been arrested and held in the custody of the Isheri Tactical Unit as investigations commence.

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BREAKING: Army lacks modern equipment to face terrorists – Zulum

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“The army does not have the necessary equipment on ground to fight the insurgency. Right now, the insurgents are using drones to fight soldiers on the ground,” was the stark reality Babagana Zulum, Governor of Borno State, painted on Wednesday, to explain the current onslaught in his state, which has remained the hotbed of decades-old terrorism ravaging the North East.

Against the backdrop of the resurgence of activities of terrorist groups, particularly Boko Haram, which has been killing residents since 2009, Zulum, a guest of News Central television network, on Wednesday, said terrorists were now deploying sophisticated technology in their operations.

Bemoaning a situation in which the bureaucratic bottlenecks attached to the procurement of military equipment, had remained a major challenged, the governor insisted that the situation must be remedied urging President Bola Tinubu to listen to the army on what it required to end insurgency in the north of the country.

He added: “We must prioritise security. National and subnational governments must pool resources together to procure equipment. A few days ago, I visited the Chief of Army Staff. He said he is looking for about 32 drones and he would end the insurgency.

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“My plea is that let us deal with this matter decisively. The President of Nigeria should listen to those that can distinguish between the right and wrong. Those that can tell him the right thing and not sycophants.

“He needs to understand what is happening on the ground. A few days ago, I said there is an insurgency in Borno state. I commended the federal government for doing very well and that we should come together to resolve the issues. Some people said there is no insecurity in Borno state. We should not politicise insecurity.”

Regarding the debate on state police, Zulum, who seemed not to be in support of the idea as the immediate panacea, maintained that the existing security apparatus should be strengthened rather than create a new policing system.

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