Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development, has criticized Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate for the general elections of 2023, for accusing President Bola Tinubu of forging documents.
This is in line with his claim that President Bola Tinubu obtained the diploma from Chicago State University from a third-party dealer and submitted it to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The declaration was made on Sunday via the former top spokesman of the disbanded Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council’s official X account.
Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate for the People’s Democratic Party, submitted new documents against Tinubu before the Supreme Court in which he claimed that the President had forged documents and lied under oath and should be disqualified and removed from office as a result.
The academic records of Tinubu, which were provided to him by Chicago State University on Monday after being ordered to do so by an Illinois court in the United States of America at Atiku’s request, were the basis for the former vice president’s evidence.
For use in Nigerian courts to support his claim that Tinubu falsified a certificate he allegedly obtained from the CSU in 1979 and submitted to the country’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission, for the 2023 presidential election, the PDP candidate had requested the documents.
Keyamo, however, stated that all the criticism and forgery claims being made about the president’s credentials were unfounded and that it was the responsibility of Atiku and his followers to persuade the unnamed vendor who supplied the new certificate to dispute its legitimacy.
He said, “I have been a defence and prosecution lawyer at the highest level in criminal trials for more than 30 years. You cannot allege or prove forgery except the purported maker of the document denies its authenticity or there is uncontradicted evidence of a forensic report that categorically says the document was deliberately altered or concocted by the person who uttered (in a legal sense) or issued it.
“Applying this principle to the case of Atiku Abubakar Vs Chicago State University, so long as the university openly said they do not issue replacement certificates. But (added) that vendors do so on their behalf. All these noise about so-called forgery are useless until the particular vendor that issued the replacement certificate to Tinubu denies its authenticity. And it is the duty of the accuser to fish out the said vendor and get that evidence. It is not the other way around. He who alleges must prove.”
According to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, it was the same basic principle he deployed in defence of former President Muhammed Buhari when a similar scenario played out during his tenure.
While reiterating that Tinubu has no case to answer, Keyamo sarcastically urged Atiku to quietly bow out of politics.
“This is the simple principle I laid down in 2019 during our defence of President Buhari that has been so mischievously celebrated as if they have hit the bull’s eye. Unfortunately for them, Tinubu is as clean and white as snow on this issue and we are again waiting for them at the Supreme Court.
“As for Atiku Abubakar (the famed SPV king and the one who disgraced Nigeria internationally with the money-laundering case involving Congressman William Jefferson), we acknowledge the valedictory speech he delivered a few days ago signifying his retirement from politics and we wish him Godspeed in that retirement,” he stated.
