By Timothy Nwachi
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that it is unfazed by allegations made against President Bola Tinubu by former Vice President and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The APC claimed that Atiku harbours deep animosity towards Tinubu because, according to them, he believes Tinubu was responsible for his electoral woes in 2007, 2015, 2019 and this year.
SpringNews reports that Atiku in a press conference in Abuja made several allegations against Tinubu which were based on the documents he obtained from the Chicago State University.
The APC, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, said that Atiku delivered nothing except the pitiful regurgitation of lies, mindless distortions and deliberate falsehood on his infantile obsession with the academic record of Tinubu
The party said that Atiku has been out there for several weeks now, displaying utter desperation in his bid to become the President of Nigeria.
The APC said that Atiku’s press conference was a calculated attempt to whip up public sentiments and inordinately pressure the Supreme Court.
According to the party, “We believe Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should have known better than to demonstrate gross contempt of the highest court by making public comments on a matter that he has submitted to the court for adjudication
“The major takeaway from his Yar’Adua Centre show, especially at question time, was that Atiku harbours deep animosity towards Tinubu whom he believes was responsible for his electoral woes in 2007, 2015, 2019 and this year.
“There is also no part of Mr. Westberg’s deposition where he said that the certificate President Bola Tinubu presented to INEC for his election is fake or was forged.
“All the insinuations and innuendos in this regard are pure mischief and should be disregarded. President Tinubu could not have forged a University degree he honourably earned because there is no advantage to derive from such and no incentive to do so.
“In desperation, unbecoming of a statesman who once occupied the second highest office in the land, the PDP candidate in the last election has thrown every decency, decorum, dignity and national respectability out the window on his purposeless judicial voyage of discovery to the United States in search of a magic wand for taking power against the will of the Nigerian electorate loudly expressed in last February’s presidential election.
“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar holds the unenviable title of Nigeria’s most prolific election loser and longest running presidential candidate in history, and we see his recent US fishing expedition as the last kick of a roundly rejected presidential aspirant.
“While we sympathise with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for spending a lifetime pursuing an unrealised dream, we strongly condemn the perfidious road he has taken and the needless negative exposure of Nigeria and the institution of the Presidency in foreign land.”
“Just for the record, we wish to provide some clarity on the matter of the deposition of Mr. Caleb Westberg, the Registrar of Chicago State University, last Tuesday under oath at the Chicago office of Atiku’s lawyer, Angela Liu, to save unsuspecting Nigerians from barrage of untruths, distortions and campaign of misinformation being dished out by Atiku and his PDP Mr. Westberg was unmistaken and unambiguous in his deposition as to the fact that President Bola Tinubu graduated with honours from Chicago State University. He also emphatically provided clear answers on all other issues raised which we can sum as follows:
“That the person who is Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is the same person who attended Chicago State University.
“He confirmed that a certain gentleman called Adeniji who had come forward to say he was Tinubu’s classmate was in fact a student at CSU at the same time and they both ran for student union positions.
“Mr. Westberg said the diploma certificate, on which the PDP and Atiku seek to gaslight Nigerians and the whole world, is just a ceremonial document and what proved studentship at Chicago State University and in any American university is transcript, not certificate.
“It should now be clear to all Nigerians that despite Atiku’s lies before the Illinois Court that he wanted to use the discoveries in pursuit of his appeal at the Supreme Court, he has rather chosen to use same as an instrument of mischief and blackmail in clear contempt of the highest court of the land,” the party said.