Ex-APC Chair To Chidoka: Don’t Mix Politics With Legal Manoeuvres Over Tinubu’s Certificate

Dr Ben Nwoye, former chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Enugu State, says former Aviation Minister Osita Chidoka is mixing politics with legal manoeuvres with his stance that Nigerian intelligence institutions failed to scrutinise President Bola Tinubu’s academic records, hence the current ‘national tragedy’ in a US court where former VP Atiku Abubakar had secured the release of Tinubu’s academic records from Chicago State University.

Chidoka had described the legal battle between Tinubu and Abubakar with respect to Tinubu’s degree obtained from Chicago State University as ‘disgraceful’.

According to him, “As a nation, we have a full retinue of staff at the Department of the State Security, the National Intelligence Agency, the Independent National Electoral Commission, the Embassy of Nigeria in Washington DC and the Nigerian judiciary that have variously ruled on matters concerning Tinubu’s qualifications, yet, we cannot have a definite conclusion about whether he has academic qualifications he claimed he had or not. Disgraceful!”

Nwoye, a lawyer, spoke in Enugu on Monday. He said, “Chidoka is mixing legal manoeuvring with politics. It is not the job of the DSS to fish out people that schooled in US. It is an allegation. Atiku is Chidoka’s principal. There is a process to get those documents.

“There is also a limitation to someone’s privacy. Chidoka cannot begin to mislead the public with flamboyant statements. The same applies to medical records. He is taking politics too far.

“Atiku wants to be president at all cost. What Atiku is doing is well within his right, but Chidoka is denigrating our institutions to say that the job of DSS is to be moving around the world to scoop academic records.

“Osita didn’t understand the process. It is not the duty of DSS to go about penetrating where opponents went to school. It is not also the duty of Nigerian Embassy to prove such. He who alleges must prove.”