President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has blamed the errors in his academic records from Chicago State University on the complacency of the clerical staff at the time.
Counsel to Tinubu, Oluwole Afolabi and Christopher Carmichael, said in their filings, a clerk from the US based university made an error in the date of issuance which caused “the appearance of differences.”
Their response is coming after former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar filled an inquiry into Tinubu’s academic records in CSU.
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A US court had given Tinubu until August 23 to make a formal filing on why his records should not be released to the former vice president.
The president has claimed that he holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the Chicago State University.
But Atiku Abubakar, who was a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February presidential election thinks otherwise.
“Unfortunately, in responding to the illegal and invalid subpoena, CSU made several errors,” the president’s lawyers said.
“CSU issued a new diploma for Bola A. Tinubu but incorrectly wrote the date of graduation as June 27, 1979.
“The correct date was June 22, 1979, but that scrivener’s error – along with a change in the CSU logo, the font on the diploma, and leadership at CSU who signed the diploma created the appearance of differences between an earlier issued diploma and the one issued in response to the 2022 subpoena.”
The former vice-president is also seeking the credentials Tinubu submitted to CSU before he was admitted into the university.