Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert of the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois has ordered the Chicago State University (CSU) to release all relevant records pertaining to Nigerian president Bola Tinubu to Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the last presidential election.
The federal court in Chicago, on Tuesday, mandated CSU to provide “all relevant and non-privileged documents” to the former Vice-president in acknowledgment of Tinubu’s lawyers’ argument against breaching their client’s privacy rights.
The court held that Atiku had been able to sufficiently satisfy the purpose for seeking the records.
“For all of the reasons discussed above, Atiku Abubakar’s application pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782 for an order directing discovery from Chicago State University for use in a foreign proceeding [ECF No. 1] is granted,” the court order seen by The West African Pilot News stated.
“Respondent CSU shall produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to requests for production Nos. 1 through 4 (as narrowed by the court) in applicant subpoena within two days of the entry of this memorandum opinion and order. The deposition of respondent’s corporate designee shall proceed within two days of the production of documents.”
The ruling appears a victory for Atiku, who has persistently sought access to the records to prove that Tinubu forged the certificate that qualified him to run for February’s presidential election.
Just yesterday, Atiku approached Nigeria’s Supreme Court to overturn the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), which had, on September 6, affirmed Tinubu’s electoral victory.
CSU had said it would only release the records if a court gave the order.
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