President Bola Tinubu has asked the Supreme Court to throw out the forgery evidence tendered by his rival, Atiku Abubakar, on the grounds that the deposition of Caleb Westberg, registrar of the Chicago State University (CSU), was conducted by U.S. attorneys rather than certified judicial officers.

Mr Tinubu, on October 12, filed a counter affidavit to defend himself from Mr Abubakar’s petitions seeking an annulment of his election victory at the top court. In it, he implied the content of the deposition could not be trusted.

“I know as a fact that neither Gwendolyn Bedford nor any other person present at the deposition is a judicial officer,” asserted the Nigerian leader in a calculated move to discredit Mr Westberg’s testimony given in front of all the respondents’ attorneys on October 3.

Mr Tinubu further tainted the deposition by implying that it was not held in a neutral setting because Dechert LLP, the legal firm representing Mr Abubakar, selected their West Wacker office as the venue. 

“DECHERT LLP referenced as the venue of the deposition, is the law office where Angela Liu, Esq., counsel to the 1st appellant herein, serves as partner,” the president wrote the Supreme Court at 4:42 p.m. on October 12.

It was unclear, though, whether Mr Tinubu’s legal team — Charles Carmichael and Oluwole Afolabi— objected to the venue prior to the October 3 deposition or if they consented to go to Mr Abubakar’s preferred location.

However, Mr Tinubu seems ready to exploit the West Wacker location as a legal loophole to prevent the Supreme Court from admitting the deposition as proof of his forgery.

As the legal showdown for Nigeria’s presidency draws near, Mr Tinubu has unsheathed his own sword, levelling serious allegations of identity fraud and forgery against his main opponent in the February elections.

He has challenged Mr Abubakar to explain why he bore “Atiku Kojoli” on his primary school certificate and “Siddiq Abubakar” on his 1965 West African Senior School Certificate (WASSCE).