Amid the certificate forgery roar, a reliable source has told CHECKPOINTCHARLEY that President Bola Tinubu has fallen sick and holed himself up in his room upstairs at his residence in the presidential Villa, Abuja, refusing to see anybody, even his political associates.
According to the source, meetings and all appointments have been cancelled because the president is unable to come downstairs to meet anyone.
“He is very sick and being attended to by doctors who have been in Aso Rock for days now,” the source said.
The nature and cause of sickness had not been disclosed, but it may not be unconnected with the can of worms opened after Mr. Caleb Westberg, the Registrar of Chicago State University revealed under oath before an Illinios court on Tuesday that the certificate Tinubu submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission was not issued by them. In other words, it was forged.
The president has not been seen in public since then and the revelation has sparked a brouhaha in Nigeria’s political space, with majority of the people calling on the president to ‘honourably’ resign on moral grounds, despite frantic efforts by his allies to distort the facts.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, whose legal efforts led to the discovery, said during a world press conference in Abuja on Thursday that “The reputation of our country is at stake. That (this) affects everyone, Nigerians everywhere, wherever they may be in the world.”
He called on the Labour Party’s Peter Obi, NNPP’s Kwankwaso, every other political and religious leader and all who love the country to “join me in this campaign to ensuring propriety, accountability and the basic principles of justice, morality, and uprightness in our country and in our government.
Recall that both Atiku and Obi had appealed the decision of the Presidential Election Pettition Tribunal, which had on September 6 affirmed Tinubu’s controversial election victory.
Less than 24 hours after that press briefing, Atiku approached Nigeria’s apex court, the Supreme Court, seeking leave to file what he termed as fresh evidence – based on what emerged from the Chicago discovery, which his opponents in the president’s party, the All Progressives Congress had badmouthed as a ‘fishing expedition.’
But that fishing expedition has unraveled what is now giving Mr. Tinubu and his associates sleepless nights and making him to shy away from the public.
Despite attempts by his party men and women, the categorical denial by Chicago University of being the issuer of the certificate Tinubu had been parading, has dealt a devastating blow to his presidency and political career. Analysts believe that no matter how the supreme court ultimately decides, he has simply lost the moral authority to lead over 200 million vibrant and law-abiding Nigerians. Notwithstanding that Mr. Westberg said during the deposition that it was a Nigerian thing to forge certificates.
Tinubu’s spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale had yet to respond to inquires about the health condition of his principal as at the time of filing this report.
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