A Court in Chicago, United States has ordered Chicago State University (CSU) to hand over all academic records of Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu to Atiku Abubakar.

The ruling was delivered on Tuesday, September 19 after Atiku sued the university to release academic certificates of Nigeria’s President.

Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was seeking the documents to prove that Tinubu was not eligible to vie for the presidency.

In delivering the ruling, Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Gilbert of the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division noted that Atiku had sufficient evidence to prove the reasons why he was seeking academic certificates of President Tinubu.

Judge Gilbert also ordered a deposition of designated university officials within two days after the records had been released.

“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,” Gilbert ruled.

“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 court added.

The electoral body had declared Bola Tinubu, president after attaining 37 percent of the vote, beating Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.

Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar had challenged Bola Tinubu’s election victory at Nigeria’s presidential election tribunal but their petitions were dismissed.

According to the tribunal, opposition parties failed to prove claims of electoral malpractice against the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in February’s elections.

However, Obi and Atiku were not satisfied with the tribunal’s ruling and they have since filed a petition at the Supreme Court challenging the tribunal ruling that upheld Tinubu’s win.

Therefore, Atiku intends to use Tinubu’s academic papers from Chicago University to support his petition at the Supreme Court.