President Bola Tinubu has implored a US judge to protect himself from serious and irreversible harm by suspending his recent order requiring the release of university records in an emergency.
Mr Tinubu said he could not mitigate the damage he would incur unless the September 6 order ordering the publication of academic papers against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was postponed to allow for possible leave. .
"If the records are made public, serious and irreparable harm will occur to Mr. Bola Tinubu," Tinubu's lawyers wrote in an emergency appeal before Judge Nancy Maldonado of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. he claimed.
Mr Tinubu's lawyer added during the court hearing that began at 3pm that damage would be done if the records were made public and cannot be put back in the bottle. Through a conference call. Chicago State University was ordered today to release documents to Mr. Abubakar.
The ongoing hearing aims to suspend the order before it takes effect in about an hour. At issue was a subpoena request submitted by Mr. Abubakar to obtain Mr. Tinubu's papers at Chicago State University after major discrepancies with the Nigerian president's academic record, which had already been made public.
Mr. Abubakar's application was granted on Tuesday by Mr. Gilbert's judgment, which ordered the production of documents and statements from school administrators.
Abubakar intends to use the record to prove Tinubu's ineligibility to run for president, citing a constitutional provision that disqualifies candidates who submit false certificates to polling agency INEC.
CSU officials claimed that Tinubu attended the school, but they also said they could not authenticate the certificate under oath because they could not say where he found it.
Mr. Tinubu initially argued that the documents should not be released to Mr. Abubakar because they would not hold up in Nigeria's highest court, and Mr. Abubakar has now released them as part of his appeal against the court's ruling that upheld Mr. Tinubu's election.Abubakar appealed to the Supreme Court on September 19, the same day Justice Gilbert ordered the CSU to release Tinubu's documents within two days.
However, when the 48-hour deadline expired on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Tinubu suddenly turned to Mr. Maldonado and requested an adjournment, stating that the desperate nature of the matter suddenly threatened to endanger Mr. Tinubu's life. The problem escalated.
Judge Maldonado then granted the request for a delay in document release and ordered all parties to submit their full briefs by September 25th.