Former Vice President and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Atiku Abubakar, has said that his decision to change his name from Siddiq Abubakar to his present name was formally documented.

Atiku, therefore, said the attempt by the Presidency and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to drag him into forgery must be seen as an effort to minimise allegation of forgeries against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The former Vice President disclosed this in a statement issued by the Atiku Media Office and signed by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, on Sunday.

“Contrary to Bola A. Tinubu’s forgery shopping allegation against Atiku, it is on record that the change of name of the former Vice President reverting to Atiku Abubakar from Siddiq Abubakar is well documented in an affidavit dated 18th of August 1973, spanning over a period of 50 years, (which incidentally is as old as the commencement of Tinubu’s life of forgeries and lies), is in the public domain,” he stated.

The statement declared that the world has come to the conclusion that President “Bola A. Tinubu is a confirmed forger-in-chief on account of his serial forgeries and lies in the last 50 years.

“Bola A. Tinubu has forged and lied about every aspect of his life: his heritage, his name and date of birth, his education and certificates, and work experience.

“The discovery of Tinubu’s records at the Chicago State University and the court ordered deposition in the United States is only a tip of the iceberg that has been the litany of his forgeries and lies.

“The attempt by Bola A. Tinubu to drag Atiku Abubakar into his drowning arena of forgery must be seen for what it is: an attempt to minimise the allegations of forgeries that he has to contend with.”

According to Ibe, it has been established that Tinubu only attended CSU and that he allegedly secured admission into the university by impersonation.

“Now, let’s put Bola A. Tinubu’s life of forgeries and lies in proper perspective. In 1999, Tinubu lied under oath in his form CF001 which he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that he attended St Paul’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos; Government College Ibadan, Chicago University (CU) and Chicago State University (CSU).

“Through the discoveries of his records in the Chicago State University, we now know that Bola A. Tinubu forged a secondary school certificate of Government College Lagos, a HSC certificate from Cambridge University and a transcript from Richard Daley College which belongs to a female owner.

“We also know, thanks to the discoveries, that the CSU few days to graduation in 1979, notified him of outstanding (or carry-over as it is known in Nigeria) pre-qualifying examinations in English, Mathematics and Comprehension, which never appeared on his transcript to have been retaken.

“After his odyssey in falsifying educational qualifications, Bola A. Tinubu claimed in his 1999 affidavit to contest for the position of Governor of Lagos State, that he had a working experience with Arthur Anderson Accounting, Deloitte and Mobil Nigeria. It ends up that both claims on Authur Anderson and Deloitte – both in the USA are false because his footprints are nowhere to be found in those corporations.

“Like CSU, Deloitte denied ever knowing or having any Bola A. Tinubu in their employment and he has since stopped adding that to his official or public records since his exposure.

“Curiously, handlers of this same Bola A. Tinubu have smuggled Adekunle, a middle name that magically popped up in his so-called National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate into his Wikipedia on the 6th of October, 2023. This may yet be another indication of a master forger at work.

“Yet, this same Bola A. Tinubu and his handlers want to confuse the public by making insinuations about what Atiku Abubakar is not.”

While asking President Tinubu and his handlers to desist from making any further attempt at comparing both the President and Atiku, the statement said: “For the purpose of clarification, all the names that Atiku Abubakar bears are names that are traceable to his family tree.

“He adopted Atiku Abubakar as his official name while in the employ of the Nigeria Customs Service. Atiku’s life is an open book, and not the mystery or close book that continues to define the life of Bola A. Tinubu.

“Conversely, Bola A Tinubu is a name that has no history nor social acquaintance until the late 1970s.”