A group, D-37, also known as Dopkesi Political Family, has dismissed the investigation report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on the alleged forged academic records submitted NY Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, as a ruse.

In a statement signed by the Chairman, Sen. Victor Isa Kaseem Oyofo, and Secretary. Adu Ter Alex, the group noted that the report was a ‘product of a hatchet revisionist job done to only hoodwink gullible members of the public’.

The group, in the statement, went down memory lane to recreate the process that birthed the conclusion that Nigeria’s President presented forged documents in his academic sojourn.

The full statement:

THE D-37 (DOKPESI POLITICAL FAMILY) DEBUNKS BBC INVESTIGATION REPORT AS A RUSE.

The D-37 wishes to clear the air on the purported report of a BBC investigation that purportedly cleared TINUBU of CSU certificate forgery allegations.

We want to emphatically state that the purported investigation is a ruse and the product of a hatchet revisionist job done to only hoodwink gullible members of the public.

To put the records straight, here is the correct findings from the CSU papers and court depositions and it’s effect on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s candidacy under the Nigerian constitution.

PLEASE FOLLOW THE SEQUENCE BELOW:

1. ADMISSION AND ENTRY LEVEL QUALIFICATION: In 1977, one candidate Bola A. Tinubu was admitted at the CSU for Diploma programme in Business Administration.

The CSU documents show that the 1977 admission entry results used by Bola A. Tinubu were a GCE A level certificate obtained from Government College Lagos 1970 and South West College Illinois. *The former was not in existence in 1970 and the latter contains particulars of a female candidate including her Social Security Number That shows she was an American citizen.

The 1970 Government College GCE certificate presented indicated the candidate sat for Biology, Chemistry and Physics with F9 in all three subjects.

The South West College transcript also had no passes in English and Mathematics. Two subjects, which were entry level requirements for all students applying to CSU for admission into Business Administration since 1975.

2. DATE OF BIRTH INCONSISTENCY: The CSU transcripts carried 29 March 1954 as the candidate’s DoB. Tinubu’s submission to INEC is 29 March 1952. This clearly shows that he lied to INEC under oath (Perjury) by the authority of the CSU papers.

3. THE CERTIFICATE The CSU Papers and the Registrar’s deposition in court are to the effect that, the CSU cannot find the Bola A. Tinubu certificate or any similar one as submitted to INEC issued to any student in 1979 or the 80s. However, the university has three certificates similar to the Tinubu certificate issued to candidates only in 1998.

4. EXAMINATION OF THE CERTIFICATE: MATERS ARISING

We unequivocally have been able to establish that the CERTIFICATE presented to INEC by Tinubu in comparison with the Certified True Copies of Certificates (highly didacted, i.e., deliberately obscured to protect privacy) issued by CSU is clearly a FAKE. See Reasons:

I. Tinubu’s Certificate has a triangle at the bottom while the ones issued by CSU to H.E, Atiku Abubakar do not have? They have two hands locked together inside an encircled mast.

II. The names of the two signatories who signed the original certificates and Tinubu’s Certificate are completely different*

III. The wordings on Tinubu’s Certificate reads“…Bachelor of Science Business And Administration With Honors…” BUT the CSU original copies say, “Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.” The word “in” appears in all original copies of the CSU Certificates, EXCEPT the one submitted by Tinubu to INEC.

IV. The certificates are all numbered at the bottom right with “…CSU 00…” but the one submitted by Tinubu to INEC does not have it.

V. At baseline of the certificates is written a total number of the Certificate booklets (32) with the number of certificates issued. “CSU 0004 4/32.”

VI. Conventionally, certificates don’t carry abbreviation of name. Candidates names are written in full like Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Only the Tinubu CSU Certificate carries an Abbreviation to say: Bola A. Tinubu, which is a misnomer.

VII. From the CSU Papers released. Document 0026 indicates that candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu had referrals in entry level English, Mathematics and Reading as at 7th June 1979 when the CSU drew the candidate’s attention to it, and required her/him to go and remedy these subjects. The candidate also had 105 credit hours less than 120 credit hours required to graduate from CSU as at 7th June 1979.

The graduation of the 1979 set occured on 22nd June 1979. There is no further evidence on the CSU records that candidate Bola A. Tinubu remedied these entry level deficiencies and credit hours in the two weeks in between the date 7th June 1979 and 22nd June 1979 to have graduated in 1979.

VIII. This Explains why Caleb Westberg the CSU Registrar denied any knowledge of the CSU issuing candidate Bola A.Tinubu the certificate presented to INEC because the CSU did not issue the candidate with any certificate in 1979 and the candidate never applied for any replacement certificate. Bola A . Tinubu simply printed a third party vendor certificate. An act, which is a forgery, unfortunately, Caleb Westberg described it as a Nigerian thing in his depositions in court.

5. LEGAL IMPLICATION

CHAPTER VI, PART 1, SECTION 137(1)(J) CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, 1999 (As Amended) Says: (1) A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President if -…

(j) he has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

6. From the established facts as revealed by the CSU papers, it reinforces the already well known fact in the public domain that the Bola Tinubu CSU Certificate is a forgery of the Original. There is therefore no gain saying, that Tinubu is in breach of Section 137(1)(j) CFRN, 1999 (As Amended).

It is important to understand that the essence of H.E, Atiku Abubakar’s USA court subpoena, was not to establish if Tinubu attended the CSU perse; but to establish by valid legal authentication, if indeed, CSU is the author and issuer of the Tinubu CSU Certificate.

Note that: one can attend an institution but still fake its certificate. Attendance is not in dispute nor a constitutional requirement.

The wordings of the constitution are very clear and unambiguous. It says, ” … he has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission”. This is different from, he has not attended an institution of learning to obtain a certificate.

This was the issue at stake before the PEPT and is the issue at stake on appeal to the Supreme Court.

The CSU papers were required mainly to confirm the certificate presented by Tinubu to INEC. A fact the institution has cleverly excused itself from by saying, it cannot locate Tinubu’s certificate within its archives, hence it is a FAKE.

With these empirical pieces of evidence, it is outrageously presumptuous for any BBC INVESTIGATION REPORT to suggest the CSU papers cleared BOLA AHMED TINUBU of any certificate forgery.