Chicago State University Registrar, Caleb Westberg, oral deposition on President Tinubu’s certificate, at the US court:
“On the certificates tendered in the documents given to Atiku: The registrar restated that the university only has Diplomas that students didn’t pick up in its possession.
“The university does not typically keep Diplomas. I have the Diploma that was made available to Mr. Enahoro-Ebah in our possession because Mr. Tinubu did not pick it up.
- “I do not have the Diploma that was submitted to INEC in our possession because he had picked it up. In
“Why would Mr. Tinubu request a Diploma and not pick it up or ask that it be sent to him?”, one of Atiku’s lawyers asked.
Westberg replied: “You would have to ask him, that is Bola Tinubu”.
“I’m not aware of any instance where CSU had been requested to certify a document. Mr. Wole Afolabi who was acting for President Tinubu insisted that the documents must be certified. Mr. Wole Afolabi is President Tinubu’s lawyer. Mr. Afolabi and Mr. Orr communicated by email.
“I don’t recall seeing the emails. I don’t know if Jason Carter approved of the certification. Apart from Jason Carter I do not know anyone else who was involved in the process.
“I went into Mr. Tinubu’s student’s file and produced the documents to Mr. Orr.
“ I didn’t know that the documents would be certified. I don’t get involved in legal matters.
“Mr. Tinubu requested that the documents be released to Mr. Afolabi for ‘legal proceedings’ The signature on the consent form is similar to the signature we have on record for Mr. Tinubu.
“All of the certified documents came from CSU’s files. Nothing was handed over to us by Mr. Afolabi except for the FERPA form. CSU had never certified documents for anyone before. It must have been made because there was more of a Nigerian thing.
“ The documents were released in pursuance of a FERPA request. I believe Mr. Afolabi requested that the documents be certified. I’m not aware if the stamp affixed by Mr. Orr to the documents was an official document. It is not part of CSU practice.
“Mr. Orr later departed from CSU after these documents were certified.I don’t know if his departure was connected to the certification of the documents; but I don’t think it was.
“Mr. Tinubu’s counsel did not prepare any affidavit for me. He didn’t draft anything for me.
“My statement that Mr. Bola Tinubu graduated from CSU was based on the transcripts in our possession.
“I have never met Bola Tinubu. I have never seen him. He did not visit our campus. He does not donate money to the school.
“In the US, Diplomas are considered merely ceremonial documents. In some other countries, it may be considered more. In the US, more reliance is placed on transcripts and not on Diplomas.
“I did not rely on information from public records to come to the conclusion that President Bola Tinubu is the person who attended CSU. I am not aware that the FBI contacted CSU on whether Bola Tinubu attended CSU.
“Between 1979 and when I assumed duties, CSU must have had at least 6 Registrars. I never spoke to Ms. Davies. Some policies have changed over the years. When there is a replacement Diploma, it is done by outside vendors. I don’t know who created Exhibit # 6.
“The institution decided that my name should not be typed on the ‘To whom it may concern’ letter because of the sheer volume of requests I was getting.
“Before CSU, I was at UC, Berkeley and UC, Irving. I’m sure people make mistakes in data entry from time to time.Before this lawsuit I didn’t know anyone called Bola.
“It was possible that someone assumes Bola to be a female and therefore marked the SouthWest Transcript as such.
