Abubakar Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, has described the BBC report on President Bola Tinubu’s certificate saga as a ‘hatchet job.’
Shaibu said the report is part of President Tinubu’s administration’s propaganda programme.
In its fact-checking report on Tinubu’s controversial certificate at the Chicago State University, the BBC on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, reported that there was no evidence that President Tinubu forged his certificate.
The report by the BBC Global Disinformation Team was predicated on the deposition of the CSU registrar, Caleb Westberg, following a court ruling in the United States.
In a bid to authenticate the allegation that Tinubu submitted a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the February 2023 presidential election, Atiku had dragged Tinubu to a US district court to access the latter’s academic records at the CSU.
However, following the release of Tinubu’s academic records by the university, BBC fact-checking report, contrary to the widely circulated claim on social media, maintained that the deposition and the documents released by the CSU do not support the claim that Tinubu forged his certificate.
The report reads in part, “Some social media users in Nigeria allege that the deposition and the diplomas released by CSU confirm that the diploma submitted to INEC by Mr Tinubu was forged. This claim was also repeated by one of Mr Abubakar’s lawyers, Kalu Kalu, at a press conference last week.
“We found there was no evidence to support this claim. Many social media users in Nigeria have been sharing false or misleading posts about the deposition of Caleb Westberg, the current CSU Registrar.”
Reacting to this, Shaibu in a statement on Wednesday accused the British media platform of deceiving Nigerians with “a jaundiced report when the details are clear for everyone to see.”
He alleged that the BBC report was published with a predetermined goal to clear the former Governor of Lagos State.
“If the BBC had invested in proper investigative journalism, it would have been the one uncovering some of Tinubu’s scandals instead of relying on Atiku for information on Tinubu’s certificates,” Shaibu said.
He added that he never imagined that the BBC would become the willing tool.
Shaibu, therefore, urged the international media platform and other fact-checkers to be circumspect in their reports, saying their job is too sensitive to entertain errors.
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