Chicago State University’s Registrar, Caleb Westberg, has testified under oath that the replacement certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by President Bola Tinubu is not a document of the university, indicating that it is a forgery.

Westberg’s testimony took place during a deposition following the ruling by Judge Nancy Maldonado, which authorized the release of Bola Tinubu’s records at Chicago State University. During the deposition, Westberg stated that the logo on the replacement certificate is not recognized by the institution.

Westberg, who joined Chicago State University in November 2020 from Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, said, as per a report, that President Tinubu’s certificate, dated June 22, 1979, and tendered to INEC on June 17, 2022, was not issued by the school and its administrators could, therefore, not be able to authenticate its source, The Guardian learnt.

Westberg also said during the deposition that President Tinubu did not apply for a replacement certificate, nor was he ever issued one.

The deposition process lasted for more than five hours and concluded at approximately 9:30 pm Nigerian time. It is part of the ongoing legal challenge by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, who is contesting the election of President Tinubu based on allegations of non-qualification due to document forgery.

CSU had long insisted that President Tinubu was its student, entering in 1977 and graduating in 1979, but its inability to authenticate the certificate the former Lagos State governor submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission would ripple across Nigeria and the world for the foreseeable future, just as the full transcript of the deposition would be highly anticipated by those following the case closely, both in Nigeria and abroad.
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