48-hour timeline given to arrest Tinubu,false academic qualifications claims

A civil rights organization, Center for Reform and Public Advocacy, has given the Inspector-General of Police a 48- hour ultimatum within which he should arrest and initiate criminal prosecution against the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, for allegedly supplying false academic qualifications to secure the nomination.

The organisation threatened that should the IGP fail to act, court action would be instituted against him for an order of mandamus to compel him to effect the arrest of Tinubu at the end of the ultimatum.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja on Saturday, the group, said it has already forwarded its petition to police authorities, saying it would not hesitate to approach the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court for an order of mandamus against the IGP, should he fail to set up a team to investigate the allegation.

It said there was need for further investigation into a report the Lagos State House of Assembly issued on a petition that foremost legal luminary and social crusader, Late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, previously filed to challenge Tinubu’s educational qualification.

According to the CSO, the APC gubernatorial candidate may be ineligible to contest the impending presidential election for allegedly supplying false information to INEC and for alleged perjury.

“On the 29th day of December, 1999, at the Ikeja High Court, Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu swore to an affidavit wherein he deposed that he attended University of Chicago from 1972-1976 and Chicago State University from 1977-1979 and obtained Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics, qualified as certified public accountant

“On the 28th day of December, 1999, at Ikeja High Court, Lagos state, Senator BAT swore to an affidavit attached to INEC Form CF 001 which Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu submitted, wherein he deposed that he attended;

“(A) Government College, Ibadan, from 1965 to 1968

(B) Richard Daley College, Chicago Illinois, USA from 1969 to 1971.

(C) University of Chicago from 1972 to 1976

(D) Chicago State University from 1977 to 1979.

“This matter was once reported to you and the Lagos State House of Assembly constituted an ad-hoc Committee on Tuesday, September 21, 1999 to investigate the allegations of Perjury and Forgery levelled against the Executive Governor of Lagos State”, the petition read in part.

The group, said the Lagos State Ad-hoc Committee, in its report, stated that Tinubu had in his evidence, admitted full responsibility for “needless errors” being pinpointed “in recent publications and which formed the basis of the allegations against him”.

It, therefore, urged the IGP to investigate whether or not the APC candidate attended all the schools he claimed in the form he submitted to INEC.

Meanwhile, among vital documents attached to the petition delivered to the IGP and acknowledged by his office, are the forms submitted to INEC by Tinubu in 1999 and 2022 for verification.