A group under the aegis of Beta Naija has given the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart Peter Obi, a seven-day ultimatum to publish their academic credentials for Nigerians to see.
The group claimed it had privately asked both Atiku and Obi to publish their academic credentials to the public.
The group's demand is contained in a statement jointly signed by its spokesman, Mustafa Ahmed Tijani, and Director General, Etinosa Igiebor, on Thursday, October 5, 2023.
This is coming amidst an ongoing certificate saga involving President Bola Tinubu.
Atiku had secured a judgement in a United States court, which compelled the Chicago State University (CSU) to release Tinubu's academic documents to him over suspicions that the President may have forged some documents belonging to the school.
For his part, Obi has consistently argued that Nigerians deserve leaders whose academic records and previous history are not shrouded in secrecy, a remark many people have deemed as a dig towards the former Lagos State Governor.
Meanwhile, the former Vice President held a press conference on Thursday to inform Nigerians of his discoveries regarding the President's academic records handed over to him by the CSU.
But Beta Naija argued that Atiku's inquisition into Tinubu's academic credentials can be likened to embarking on a fruitless journey to nowhere, urging the PDP candidate to end his "chase of shadows."
"We expect him (Atiku) to busy himself with how to prove that he won the February Presidential Election at the Supreme Court, rather than this fishing expedition he is currently on. Instead of proving that he won the election, he is busy spending his fraudulently earned dollars on expensive lawyers to prove a matter that is not in doubt at all," the statement partly read.
The group also expressed concerns on how Atiku suddenly ended up with a Master' Degree, having previously stated that he only attended the Royal School of Hygiene in Kano.
It, therefore, called on the former Vice President and Obi - who graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) but only submitted his O'Level result to INEC - to honour the private requests for them to publish their academic records.
"Meanwhile, we are concerned about how Atiku Abubakar, who claims he attended the Royal School of Hygiene in Kano, ended up as a Master's Degree holder. We are also at a loss as to why Peter Obi, who claims to have graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, is unwilling to parade said transcript and academic records...
"Let it be on record that we have before now written privately to both the Presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart, Mr Peter Obi, to release their academic credentials to the public and there was no response from either party. We are hereby issuing another public call with a Seven (7) day ultimatum for compliance.
"Failure to do so will see us asking our lawyers, who are waiting in the wings, to institute a case against them in a court of competent jurisdiction to demand the release of the academic records of both the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party candidate, Mr Peter Obi," the statement added.
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