Lawyer drags Tinubu to court over ‘certificate forgery, age falsification, perjury’

A lawyer, Mike Enahoro-Ebah, has applied to a court to issue criminal summons against Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) over alleged forgery, falsification of age and lying on oath.

Mr Enahoro-Ebah sued the APC presidential standard bearer in three separate direct criminal complaints filed at the Chief Magistrate Court at Wuse Zone 6, Abuja.

According to the court documents, Mr Enahoro-Ebah is the complainant while Mr Tinubu is the sole defendant in the separate cases marked: CR/121/2022, CR/122/2022 and CR/123/2022.

The lawyer, in his court filings, urged the chief magistrate Emmanuel Iyanna, handling the case to issue criminal summons against Mr Tinubu to appear to answer to the charges.

But no date has been fixed for a hearing.

Citing various sections of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, and the Nigerian constitution, Mr Enahoro-Ebah alleged that Mr Tinubu lied on oath having falsely sworn to an affidavit in support of his personal particulars (Form EC-9) submitted to INEC on 17 June 2022.

Allegations

In the case numbered CR/121/2022, the complainant accused Mr Tinubu of presenting “a forged Chicago State University Certificate to INEC with the intent that it may be acted upon as genuine…”

He says the presidential candidate’s conduct was in breach of “the Penal Code Act, Cap. 532, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”

Revealing how he came about the alleged forgery, Mr Enahoro-Ebah said he applied, through his colleague, Mathew Kowals, a Chicago-based lawyer, who issued an attorney subpoena on his behalf against the university in case number: 22-L-007289 on 12 August, directing the school to mail him (Kowals) all documents and records concerning Mr Tinubu in their possession.

The lawyer said copies of the Chicago State University certificate, academic records, undergraduate admission application form, University of Cambridge General Certificate of Education, and 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 contradict material information provided by the defendant in his sworn Form EC-9 submitted to INEC,” he said.

Mr Enahoro-Ebah further claimed Mr Tinubu who attended Chicago State University was born in 1954 and not 1952 as claimed by the APC presidential candidate on oath in his sworn Form EC-9 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He also said the copy of 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 17 June.

The complainant said a direct comparison of both certificates reveal different dates of issue by the university (22 June 1979 and 27 June 1979); different university logo on both certificates; different grammatical construction on faces of the certificates, 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 Mr Tinubu is a man.

He further alleged the Mr Tinubu that attended the university 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 as to his attendance of the said Government College, Lagos, among other allegations.

In the filings, Mr Enahoro-Ebah said it was in the best interest of Nigeria, justice and equity to issue criminal summons to ensure Mr Tinubu’s attendance in court to answer to the complaints.

Allegations of certificate forgery have encircled Mr Tinubu since his time as governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007.

At various times, the iconic human rights lawyer, the late Gani Fawehinmi, and a current spokesperson for Mr Tinubu’s presidential campaigns, Festus Keyamo, had mounted legal challenge against Mr Tinubu over the issue.

None of the legal actions succeeded against Mr Tinubu.