On Monday, President Bola Tinubu criticised Atiku Abubakar, labelling him as a ‘demagogue,’ an ‘anarchist,’ and a ‘kleptocrat’ in response to the former vice president’s outburst over the Supreme Court’s rejection of new certificate forgery evidence that would have nullified Mr Tinubu’s electoral victory.

Mr Tinubu, in a statement through Bayo Onanuga, one of his aides, was reacting to a press conference on Monday where Mr Abubakar berated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for failing to disqualify Mr Tinubu and the Supreme Court’s failure to admit evidence of his certificate forgery.

“We were wrong to expect that Atiku at 77 would play the statesman and sportsman and accept, with equanimity, the verdict of the highest court and the people of Nigeria,” Mr Tinubu said. “Instead, he unashamedly constituted himself into a demagogue and anarchist in the way and manner he sought to pull down and delegitimize all the institutions of State, all in a futile bid to achieve what he could not get via the ballot box.”

While ignoring his certificate forgery issue raised by Mr Abubakar, Mr Tinubu called the opposition candidate a hypocrite, saying Mr Abubakar is one of Africa’s worst kleptocrats.

“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar claims he loves Nigeria and embraces “integrity” so much. We found such claim to be sheer hypocrisy as Atiku remains one of the worst examples of kleptocracy in Africa. The U.S. Congress lists Atiku’s money laundering as one of the very rare cases of corruption at the highest level of governance in the world.

“His avarice sent congressman William Jefferson to jail after the FBI busted a bribery scandal in which Atiku was involved from head to toe and for which he was marked down by the U.S. agency,” Mr Tinubu said.

Earlier in August, Mr Abubakar had approached the U.S. court to compel Chicago State University to release Mr Tinubu’s academic record, which has been a subject of controversy and shrouded in secrecy for decades.

Last month, the U.S.-based institution, in a deposition, revealed Mr Tinubu presented a forged certificate to INEC.

CSU’s deposition had sparked reactions amongst Nigerians, with many calling for Mr Tinubu’s ouster in line with Nigeria’s Constitution.

Section 137 (1)(j) of the 1999 Constitution (amended in 2010) states that no one would be legitimately elected president of Nigeria if the person “has presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.”