Arrest Tinubu over ‘certificate forgery’, CSO tells IGP

A civil society organisation, the Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy,
has called for the arrest of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for allegedly falsifying his academic qualifications.

The group, in a statement issued on Saturday, asked the Inspector-General of Police to initiate criminal prosecution against Tinubu within 48 hours.

The CRPA legal adviser, Agu Kalu, said if the IGP fails to act, the group will ask the court for an order of mandamus to compel him to initiate the arrest.

Kalu said Tinubu is not qualified to run for president, alleging that he provided ‘false information’ about the primary and secondary schools he attended.

He said, “We wrote a petition to the IG on June 16, demanding the prosecution of Tinubu for providing false information on oath in his INEC form CF 001 which he submitted in 1999.

“Since the IG is yet to act on the petition, we are using this press conference to call on the IG to do the needful. He is not above the law, nobody is above the law. Sections 191 and 192 make it a criminal offence to provide false information on oath.

“We are also calling on President Buhari to direct the IG to arrest and prosecute Tinubu for perjury, it is a very serious issue.”

Reacting, the media director of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga, said the allegations are false.

Onanuga, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, said the group’s claims are unfounded and nothing but “noise-making” because Tinubu “is more than qualified to be Nigeria’s president.”

He said Tinubu never submitted a false certificate in 1999, and that the Lagos state house of assembly exonerated him in its report.

Onanuga said, “Asiwaju was exonerated in the house of assembly’s report because Senator Afikuyomi said he filled the form on his behalf then.

“The same certificate he gave to INEC this year, he used in 2003 and there was no issue then. Why are they raising issues now?

“What people don’t know is that when he was in exile, his house at Balarabe Musa Crescent in Surulere was burnt by the military and he couldn’t pick out a pin from the razed building.

“This was what happened that time and if in 2022, he (Tinubu) now drew blank on that session, what offence has he committed?”

Onanuga alleged that the “people making noise are PDP agents” who are raising issues where there is nothing.