Politics
Don’t Wash My Dirty Linens In Public – Tinubu To US Court
A United States’ District Judge, Nancy Maldonado, has received a passionate prayer from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to help shield his ugly past, by ordering the Chicago State University (CSU) to guard his personal information from the public.
President Tinubu madet the prayers on Monday, and among what he is desperate to keep from the public are his admission records, transcripts and gender.
Interestintly, these are what the legal team of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar canvass would be of interest to the Nigerian public and help determine their appeal against the ruling of the Presidential Elections Petition Tribunal (PEPT).
However, President Tinubu’s legal team are praying the judge to sanction the release of only his certificate to the appellants.
The motion was filed by the president’s lawyer, Christopher Carmichael, with the clear stance that “the most critical fact has already been clearly and unequivocally established” by President Tinubu’s alma mater.
Recall that Atiku’s legal team had secured an order from a US magistrate, Jeffrey Gilbert, for the CSU to make President Tinubu’s academic records available to them.
Among the documents Atiku’s, counsel, Angela Liu, applied for, are the record of President Tinubu’s admission and acceptance at the CSU, dates of attendance, degrees, awards and honours attained by the former governor of Lagos State at the university.
Recall that with the last Thursday deadline set by Gilbert at hand, President Tinubu’s lawyers approached Maldonado, praying that the earlier decision by Gilbert needed to be reviewed by a district judge.
The judge acceded to their prayers.
There was a twist on Monday, however, as President Tinubu’s legal team prayed the court to release only the certificate and preclude other academic records, which they described as “privileged”.
An extract from the motion filed by President Tinubu’s lawyer read, “The most critical fact has already been clearly and unequivocally established by Chicago State University: Intervenor was awarded the degree as he stated.
“This point is irrelevant to the applicant because he is not seeking anything more than opposition research on a political opponent.
“The magistrate judge clearly erred in granting the application for discovery and concluding that Chicago State University must respond to the document and deposition subpoenas.
“That conclusion should be set aside and the application should be denied because the information sought cannot be used and therefore is not ‘for use’ in the foreign proceedings.
“Even if a narrow subset of information can be considered ‘for use’ in the foreign proceeding, that is limited to the diploma submitted to INEC.
“Fishing expeditions into other documents and more document productions must be precluded.”
This twist comes two days after the self-acclaimed classmate of the president, Olajide Adeniji, testified in the US district court that he knows and contested against President Tinubu as President of the Accounting Society Club at the Department of Business Admin/Accounting in the same CSU.
In the oath he took on September 23 at the Northern District of Illinois Court in Chicago, Adeniji swore that he was familiar with the same President Tinubu, the current president of Nigeria.
Biztellers gathered that Atiku’s camp has sworn to resist President Tinubu’s recent move, which they aver made it obvious that the President was bent on hiding something from Nigerians.
The Atiku camp is already bubbly with the prayers of the President Tinubu legal team.
They consider it a veiled confession that President Tinubu was living on a borrowed identity and would approach the court with counter-prayers.
Director, Research and Strategy, Atiku/Okowa 2023 Presidential Campaign Council, Pedro Obaseki, alleged that the claim by President Tinubu that the release of his record to the public would cause him personal pain was because the owner of the disputed certificate is a woman.
Speaking at a Zoom conference hosted by a London-based psychologist, Gold Emmanuel on Monday, Obaseki said the CSU would only confirm what Atiku’s camp already knew by making public the record of President Tinubu, who graduated from the institution in the late 70s.
He said, “Nigerians will be more demoralised that the owner of the certificate that President Tinubu is parading is a woman.
“We already know it as a fact, but we are seeking the release of the documents officially by CSU.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the outcome of the Ondo State governorship election, accusing the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of electoral malpractice, including vote-buying and result manipulation.
This was disclosed during a meeting of the PDP Governors’ Forum on Saturday in Jos, Plateau State.
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The forum, chaired by Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed, criticized the conduct of the election, which saw APC’s Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa secure a landslide victory for another four-year term in Alagbaka, Akure.
“We are still reviewing documents from the Ondo election, where the APC openly bought votes and manipulated results,” Mohammed said.
He urged the judiciary to “save Nigerian democracy” and called on the National Assembly to strengthen electoral laws to prevent what he described as “institutional sabotage of the people’s will.”
The PDP governors also condemned the September governorship election in Edo State, describing it as a “rape of democracy.”
The forum accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of colluding with the APC to declare its candidate the winner despite claims that the PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo, had secured the majority of lawful votes.
“INEC blatantly manipulated the results in favor of the APC candidate. This undermines the credibility of our electoral process,” Mohammed said.
Beyond electoral grievances, the governors urged the PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC) to convene a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting by February 2025.
They emphasized the need for broader consultations with stakeholders to resolve the party’s internal leadership crisis and strengthen its position as the main opposition party.
The forum reiterated its commitment to democratic values and vowed to push for electoral reforms that would restore public confidence in Nigeria’s electoral process.
The Ondo governorship election has sparked a renewed call for transparency in the country’s electoral system, with the PDP vowing to challenge what it views as a subversion of democracy.
Following his observations that ‘the momentum was strong’ Matt Gaetz whom 47th POTUS elect, Donald Trump nominated for Attorney General has withdrawn.
Biztellers reports that this follows his meeting with Senate and the feedback, which included two women, represented by their attorneys, who accused him of having paid for sex.
Consequently, Gaetz placed on record his full commitment to seeing “that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history.”
His withdrawal according his statement on micro-blogging site, X, was based on his conviction that “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle”.
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In is view, “Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1”.
Gaetz wrote, “I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback – and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.
“I remain fully committed to see that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history. I will forever be honored that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I’m certain he will Save America.”
His backers have promptly encouraged to take his seat in the House of Representatives, having been elected to the house under the flag of the Republicans to represent Florida.
The Executive Governors from Nigeria’s South West have unanimously nominated Senator Ademola Adeleke as the chairman of the zone on the National Economic Council (NEC).
Adeleke is the Executive Governor of Osun State, southwest, Nigeria.
This, according to the Spokesperson to Governor Adeleke, Olawale Rasheed, transpired on Thursday, at a meeting of the NEC.
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He noted that the meeting reviewed the state of Nigeria’s electricity sector and resolved to engage subnational structures to address current challenges in the sector.
“The meeting particularly sought to build on the devolution of the electricity sector and its movement into the concurrent legislative list which empowers state governments to regulate the sector in their respective areas,” he stated.
Consequently, the NEC, therefore set up an ad hoc committee to review actions in the sector by state governments and explore ways to ramp up activities through coordination, Rasheed highlighted.
The full list of members of NEC’s Ad-hoc Committee on National Electrification:
- Governor of Cross Rivers State, Bassey Out – Chairman, South-South
- Governor of Katsina State, Mallam Dikko Umaru Radda – Chairman, North-West
- Governor of Gombe State, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya – Chairman, North-East
- Governor of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke – Chairman, South-West
- Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma – Chairman, South-East
- Governor of Plateau State, Barr. Caleb Mutfwang – Chairman, North-Central
- Hon. Minister of Finance, Wale Edun
- Hon. Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu
- Special Adviser, NEC and Climate Change, Rukaiya El-Rufai
- Special Adviser, Power Minister, Hon. Bolaji Tunji
- MD/CEO Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu
- MD/CEO Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Jennifer Adighije
- Chairman, Nigeria Governors Forum, AbdulRahman AbdulRazak
- NEC Secretariat
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