The President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has filed an emergency motion to delay Chicago State University, United States, from releasing his academic record as requested by the Peoples Democratic Party, 2023 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Recall that, a district court in the United States issued a memorandum signed by US magistrate judge, Jeffrey Gilbert on Wednesday, September 20, granting the release of President Tinubu’s Academic Record after Atiku requested for it.
The memorandum read, “This matter is before the Court on Atiku Abubakar’s Application Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782 for an Order Directing Discovery from Chicago State University for Use in a Foreign Proceeding (“Application”) [ECF No. 1]. For the reasons discussed below, the Application is granted.”
Following this, Tinubu’s Counsel, Christopher Carmichael, filed an emergency motion titled, ‘Emergency motion to delay dispositive ruling number 23CV5099’ signed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division on Thursday, September 21, 2023.
According to the filed motion, an unidentified clerk of the university made an error on the date the school stated on his recently-issued certificate, thereby creating “the appearance of differences.”
The motion read in part “Intervenor asks this court to enter an immediate order delaying the effect of the magistrate’s order, at least until Monday, September 25, 2023, so the court may fully consider both the scope of the magistrate’s authority to issue the order without review, and the issue of whether the magistrate’s order was a correct application of the law to the facts presented.”
In support of his motion, Tinubu said his request was based on the fact that the “Applicant (Atiku) is challenging an election that occurred in Nigeria in February 2023. Applicant filed his action under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 on August 2, 2023, after dismissing a similar Illinois State court action that was originally filed July 11, 2023.”
“The limited time available is therefore due to the applicant’s decision to seek information utilising section 1782 six months after the election concluded. This court referred the applicant’s request to issue discovery to the magistrate. (Dkts. 6 & 7.)”
Tinubu’s legal team argued that he was unaware until the issuance of the ruling directing CSU to release his records to Atiku that the magistrate intended to issue a binding ruling requiring compliance without any action by the court.
The lawyer further argued that “Considering the nature of applications for discovery under 28 U.S.C. § 1782, the Ninth Circuit concluded a magistrate may only report and recommend to a district judge, in CPC Patent Technologies PTY Ltd. v. Apple, Inc., the Ninth Circuit held.”
Tinubu’s emergency motion was electronically filed with the Clerk of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois through the Case Management/Electronic Case File.
