PDP : Lawyers Plea Inconsistent with Tinubu’s Academic Assertions

Chuks Okocha in  Abuja

 The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday charged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to come clean on the desperation by its lawyers in the United States to conceal certain vital details regarding the academic records of President Bola Tinubu at the Chicago State University (CSU) from the public. 

In a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba,  the PDP stated that the application by the lawyers urging the US District Court of Illinois not to release the said academic details are in direct conflict with the public declarations by President Tinubu that his academic records are impeccable.

The PDP recalled that President Tinubu had in a public function openly asserted to Nigerians that “I was one of those most recruited graduates of my university, multiple honours, First Class Degree and I have the reference point.”

According to the spokesperson of the PDP, “In view of the above assertion, the PDP therefore holds that the plea by the lawyers that the details of his academic record should not be released is a great disservice to President Tinubu in particular and Nigeria in general.

“This desperation to conceal vital information is consistent with APC’s penchant for trickery and underhand dealings in their transactions with Nigerians which has heightened under the Abdullahi Ganduje leadership,” the PDP spokesman said.

Ologunagba stressed further, “By appointing Dr. Ganduje as its National Chairman, despite the malodorous corruption and bribery allegations against him in the public domain, the APC further confirms itself as not only being a cesspit of corruption but also as irredeemably given to concealment and condonement of depravity, sleaze and mendacious acts.”

According to him, “it is curious that the APC has remained silent on allegations and public apprehension of sabotage in the Monday, September 25, 2023 fire outbreak at the Supreme Court, which is suspected to have been an arsonist attack with the intent to cripple and frustrate the Supreme Court in the handling of the Presidential Election Appeals pending before it.”

“The APC must in the least acknowledge the desirability and moral duty placed on it to encourage, insist and ensure that it is transparent with Nigerians and indeed the world. Failure to discharge this duty to Nigerians is condemnable.

“The litany of probes, inquiries and investigations which were instituted on various matters without reports under the APC since 2015 validates the above,” he stressed.

According to Ologunagba, “It is clear that the APC is a major threat to our nation’s democracy. The PDP calls on all men of goodwill across our country and beyond to stand firm in the defense of democracy, transparency and the rule of law in Nigeria, especially at this critical time.”