The Bola Tinubu Campaign Organization has said the recent certificate forgery charges against the former Lagos governor were caused by Lagos politician, Tokunbo Afikuyomi.
The campaign organization in a statement to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN said Mr Afikuyomi was the one who falsely told the electoral department of INEC in 1999 that Mr Tinubu attended primary and secondary schools in Ibadan, a claim that has now resurfaced ahead of the 2023 presidential elections.
This follows a report that Mr Tinubu in his 2023 presidential nomination filings with INEC said he did not obtain a primary and secondary education.
His campaign admitted that Mr Tinubu did not disclose his early schools because the matter was controversial in the early 2000s, adding that the APC candidate was exonerated of all charges after Mr Afikuyomi, a former senator, admitted that he mistakenly filled the governorship nomination forms for Mr Tinubu in 1999 and, therefore, responsible for the false claims before a Lagos parliamentary panel that probed the counterfeit academic records.
The campaign spokesman Bayo Onanuga said that: “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?.
“This was what happened that time and if in 2022, he (Tinubu) now drew blank on that session, what offence has he committed?”
The campaign said the controversy was fueled by opposition elements of the Peoples Democratic Party.
