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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has berated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, over his quest to obtain President Bola Tinubu’s academic records from the Chicago State University (CSU).
The National Publicity Director of the APC, Bala Ibrahim, in a statement on Tuesday, attributed Atiku and the PDP’s action to what he called “post-election defeat disorder.”
Ibrahim claimed Nigerians had rejected the opposition party following years of mismanagement and admonished the former vice president to quit politics.
Recall that the United States’ District Court for Northern Illinois received the former Lagos State Governor’s certificates as ordered by Justice Nancy Maldonado.
The court took the deposition of Tinubu’s certificates on Tuesday, following the release of the documents by CSU on Monday in compliance with the court ruling.
Ibrahim lampooned Atiku for embarking on such expedition in bitterness over his electoral loss.
“We have said it times without number that the PDP and Atiku are suffering from ‘defeat disorder syndrome.’ The next thing for them to do now is to file another application at the court asking for the number of times Tinubu attended lectures at the Chicago State University.
‘’There is just nothing they won’t question, including asking God why he created the man Tinubu. There is what they call post-trauma disorder syndrome. If they are not treated for it, they will continue to manifest stupidity until such a time when the proper psychiatric assessment of their situation is done,” he said.
Ibrahim further knocked the PDP for refusing to accept defeat, advising the party’s presidential candidate to retire from public life.
“Remember, Nigerians voted them out. They refused to accept it and went to court. The court threw them out. They refused and went abroad where they were voted out again.
‘’Now, they are still refusing to accept. To us, it is a foregone issue. The case has been rested. Atiku should just swallow his pride and bow out of public life,” he counselled.
PDP reacts
However, the PDP insisted that Tinubu’s academic record released by his alma mater had vindicated its position.
The PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Abdullahi, claimed the CSU record indicated that the president presented conflicting documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Abdullahi hinted that the relevant documents would be presented before the Supreme Court to prove the PDP and Atiku’s case against Tinubu.
Atiku had filed 35 grounds of appeal at the apex court to nullify the Presidential Election Petitions Court’s judgement that affirmed Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
Abdullahi said they were satisfied with the documents released by the CSU, adding: “That was exactly what we requested. We have suspected and proven that we have a conflicting record about Tinubu, the president of the country, and that is why we sought reliefs from the court to see what he was issued when he graduated from the Chicago State University as he claimed in 1979.
“He who alleges must prove. Now that we have the document, we will tender it before the Supreme Court. So it’s now for the revered justices of the Supreme Court to see if indeed what we have said against this person can be proven, and then the necessary thing be done per the extant provisions, laws and the Electoral Act.
“If the judiciary has any modicum of honour left in it, this is the time to prove it and if Tinubu and his people, APC have anything good for Nigeria in their entire conception, this is the time to prove it. Tinubu and the APC should apologise to Nigerians, hand over and go.”