The United States District Court in Illinois has issued an order for Chicago State University to release President Bola Tinubu’s academic records to Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.

This order comes as part of Atiku’s efforts to obtain documents he claims will support his argument that Mr. Tinubu forged a diploma certificate he submitted to Nigeria’s electoral body, INEC, for the 2023 presidential election.

In a ruling delivered by Judge Nancy Maldonado, it was stated that Atiku’s request to access Mr. Tinubu’s academic records was granted.

The court gave CSU 48 hours to release the documents to Atiku, setting a deadline of 12 noon on Monday.

While President Tinubu had raised objections to the release of these documents, the court dismissed his objections, affirming Atiku’s right to access the CSU records.

However, the court emphasized that its decision was not a confirmation of the merit of Atiku’s allegations against the Nigerian president or the validity of the country’s presidential election.

The court has cautioned President Tinubu that any attempt to delay the release of his academic records to Atiku will be denied.

This warning is because Atiku has a limited timeframe to use these records as evidence in an ongoing legal case.

If President Tinubu still wishes to delay the release, he must make the request directly to the US Court of Appeals for their consideration.

The documents ordered for release include copies of a CSU diploma issued to President Tinubu in 1979, Mr. Tinubu’s diploma issued in 1979, an exemplar of a CSU diploma with the same characteristics as Mr. Tinubu’s diploma, and relevant CSU documents certified and produced by Jamar Orr, an associate general counsel at CSU, along with related communications.