Lawyer drags Tinubu to court over alleged certificate forgery, age falsification

A Legal practitioner Mike Enahoro-Ebah has dragged the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu to court over alleged certificate forgery, falsification of age and lying on oath.

Enahoro-Ebah, a human rights activist, commenced the action against Tinubu in three direct criminal complaints he filed at the Chief Magistrate Court sitting at Wuse Zone 6, Abuja.

He alleged that Tinubu supplied false information and attached forged documents to his form EC-9 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on June 17, 2022, in aid of his qualification for the 2023 presidential election.

While the legal practitioner is the complainant, Tinubu is the sole defendant in the cases marked: CR/121/2022, CR/122/2022 and CR/123/2022, respectively.

The matters, dated November 9 and filed on November 10, 2022, by the lawyer himself, were brought pursuant to Sections 88(1), 89(3), 109(A), 110(C) and 115(1)(B) and 119 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015; under the inherent jurisdiction and powers of the court secured by Section 6(6)(a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

The complainant disclosed that there were contradictions between what Tinubu claimed and submitted to INEC and documents he obtained from institutions Tinubu claimed to have attended.

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According to Enahoro-Ebah, he had applied for the said documents through his colleague, Mathew J. Kowals, a Chicago-based legal practitioner, who issued an attorney subpoena on his behalf against the Chicago State University in case number: 22-L-007289, on August 12, directing the school to mail him (Kowals) all documents and records about Tinubu in their possession.

He claimed that copies of his Chicago State University Certificate, academic records, undergraduate admission application form, University of Cambridge General Certificate of Education, and a copy of Southwest College Transcript (now City College of Chicago) were later sent to him, which he attached to the court documents as exhibits.

“Curiously, the information contained in the documents and school records received from Chicago State University contradicts material information provided by the defendant in his sworn Form EC-9 submitted to INEC,” he said.

The complainant further alleged that while Tinubu’s birth year according to Chicago State University records was 1954, the Form EC-9 submitted to INEC by the presidential candidate said 1952.

He also alleged that the Chicago State University Certificate released by the school “is radically different” from the copy attached to Tinubu’s sworn Form EC-9 submitted to INEC on June 17.

The lawyer added that a direct comparison of both certificates reveals different dates of issue by the University (June 22, 1979, and June 27, 1979); different university logos on both certificates; different grammatical construction on the faces of the certificates, and different signatures, among others.

He said in support of the defendant’s undergraduate admission application form submitted to Chicago State University in 1977 was a transcript from Southwest College, Chicago, bearing the name “Tinubu Bola A”, which belongs to a female student, contrary to Form EC-9 submitted to INEC which indicated that Tinubu is a man.

He further alleged that Tinubu indicated in his undergraduate admission application form that he graduated from Government College, Lagos, in 1970, while the defendant, in his Form EC-9 submitted to INEC, provided no information about his attendance at the said Government College, Lagos.

He said it is in the best interest of Nigeria, justice and equity to issue criminal summons to ensure Tinubu’s court attendance to respond to the issues.

The case before Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Iyanna is yet to be scheduled for a hearing.

Tinubu has recently been in the news over an allegation that he forfeited money from narcotic dealings worth $460.00 to the United States government in 1993.

The judgment docketed on July 26, 1993, and certified by Thomas O. Burton, the court clerk, indicted Tinubu for heroin trafficking in Illinois through a proxy organisation owned by Adegboyega Mueez Akande and subsequently forfeited the proceeds of the crime to the US government.

The former Lagos State governor’s campaign team has denied the allegation.

The certified copies of the judgment have been circulating in the social media in recent days.