The Presidency has maintained that the release of academic records by Chicago State University (CSU), United States, has exonerated President Bola Tinubu, confirming his status as an alumnus of the institution.

Temitope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Public Affairs, also emphasized that CSU did not state that the certificate presented by Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the presidential election was forged in its deposition.

In light of an Illinois, Chicago court’s order to release Tinubu’s academic records, former Vice President Abubakar Atiku is set to submit an application at the Supreme Court on Thursday regarding his election appeal against Tinubu, following the acquisition of CSU records.

On Monday, CSU released the President’s academic records, with the CSU Registrar, Carl Westberg, deposing to the documents on Tuesday, in compliance with Magistrate Jeffrey Gilbert’s ruling.

Gilbert had granted Atiku’s request for the release of Tinubu’s academic records on September 19, but Tinubu filed a review of the order.

Despite objections from Tinubu’s lawyers regarding the relevance of the documents in Atiku’s Supreme Court appeal, federal judge Nancy Maldonado overruled them and instructed CSU to provide the academic records.

ALSO READ: Tinubu submits three additional ministerial nominees to senate

In its documents, CSU responded to Atiku’s four requests and confirmed that Tinubu attended the university.

Ajayi, in a statement on the X micro-blogging platform, clarified, “We should be clear. In the deposition made by the Chicago State University, there was nowhere the university said the certificate presented to INEC by President Tinubu is fake.”

He added, “The university insisted under oath that President Tinubu graduated with honours, and even at that, replacements for lost certificates are done by vendors, not the university.

The claim that President Tinubu submitted a fake certificate to INEC does not make sense. A man cannot forge the academic records he possesses. You can only forge what you don’t have.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, also addressed the issue, downplaying the controversies surrounding the President’s educational qualifications.

Tuggar stated that the Federal Government is not focusing on Atiku’s case in the US, considering it frivolous.

He described the certificate issue as “a trivial matter” and a distraction, noting that the Tinubu administration is not concerned with it, especially in the face of economic challenges and development priorities.

Tuggar emphasized that the President’s international engagements have not been dominated by the certificate issue, and foreign leaders and organizations have shown little interest in it.

Atiku is expected to submit new evidence obtained from CSU to the Supreme Court on Thursday as part of his ongoing election appeal against Tinubu.