The Chicago State University (CSU) on Tuesday made a deposition on the release of President Bola Tinubu’s academic records.
A deposition is the process of taking a sworn, out-of-court oral testimony of a witness. This testimony may be reduced to a written transcript for use in court or for discovery purposes.
Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, had subpoenaed CSU to release Tinubu’s academic records for use in the Nigerian supreme court.
Abubakar is challenging the victory of Tinubu in the February 25 election and the affirmation of Tinubu by the petition tribunal as winner of the poll.
He had argued that there are discrepancies in the certificate Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which should have rendered him ineligible to contest the election.
Speaking on the certificate (also called diploma) presented to the INEC by Tinubu, Caleb Westberg, the university registrar and deponent/witness, said he could not comment on it because he did not see it.
“The university only has diplomas that students didn’t pick up in its possession. The university does not typically keep diplomas. I do not have the diploma that was submitted to INEC in our possession,” he said.
He also said when there is a replacement diploma, “it is done by outside vendors”.
Westberg said that in the US, “diplomas are considered merely ceremonial documents. In some other countries, it may be considered more. In the US, more reliance is placed on transcripts and not on diplomas”.
He said all of the certified documents came from CSU’s files.
