The All Progressives Congress (APC) has lashed out at the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, over the press conference he addressed on the academic records of President Bola Tinubu.

The APC stated that it was not unfazed by the press conference Atiku addressed in Abuja on Thursday, October 5, 2023, saying the former Vice President should accept defeat in the 2023 presidential election and “quietly lick his political wound with some dignity”.

The ruling party said Nigerians rejected the PDP presidential standard-bearer in the election, adding that the press conference addressed by him lacked purpose.

The party said these in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, on Thursday.

The APC spokesperson stated: “It should now be clear to all Nigerians that despite Atiku’s lies before the Illinois Court that he wanted to use the discoveries in pursuit of his appeal at the Supreme Court, he has rather chosen to use same as an instrument of mischief and blackmail in clear contempt of the highest court of the land.

“We want to urge former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to graciously accept his defeat and quietly lick his political wound with some dignity. Nigerians rejected him at the polls, and he cannot get by subterfuge what he failed to get through the ballot box.

“Nigerians validly elected President Tinubu to revamp our economy, restore security, create jobs, provide transformative infrastructure, improve electricity supply, and enhance the living conditions of the masses.

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“President Tinubu has undertaken to serve Nigerians and he will not be distracted by a man who has consistently failed to achieve his self-serving and brutal quest to become Nigeria’s president.”

Morka further described Atiku as “Nigeria’s most prolific election loser and longest-running presidential candidate in history”, stressing that the Registrar of Chicago State University in the United States, Caleb Westberg, was “unmistaken and unambiguous” in his statement that President Tinubu graduated from the university.

He noted that Westberg also declared that the president is the same person who attended the university in U.S., adding that the CSU also confirmed that “a certain gentleman called Adeniji who had come forward to say he was Tinubu’s classmate was in fact a student at CSU at the same time and they both ran for student union positions.”

The APC spokesman added: “Mr. Westberg said the diploma certificate, on which the PDP and Atiku seek to gaslight Nigerians and the whole world, is just a ceremonial document and what proved studentship at Chicago State University and in any American university is transcript, not certificate.

“Furthermore, he stated that the ‘F’ on the Southwest college certificate, a feeder institution to CSU, which President Bola Tinubu used to gain admission into CSU was a clerical error which could of course happen. He reiterated that Southwest College was a major feeder source for CSU.

“He said the person admitted based on the transcript from South West College, was a male Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Westberg also added the courses taken by President Bola Tinubu at Southwest College were consistent with the courses he took at CSU.”

The Star