Dapo Thomas, a former Senior Special Assistant for Policy Formulation and Programmes during President Bola Tinubu’s tenure as the governor of Lagos State, has emphatically denied any allegations of his former principal forging a certificate from Chicago State University.
Thomas went on to reveal that he personally accompanied Tinubu to Chicago State University in 2002 when the institution honored him with an award for being an alumnus.
In an interview with our correspondent, Thomas explained that many Nigerians may not be familiar with the third-party procedure involved in obtaining certificates in the United States. He pointed out that political oppositions are exploiting this lack of understanding to sow confusion among the public.
He said, “The issue of certificate saga concerning Tinubu started sometime in 1999 when he contested for the governorship of Lagos State. Some of his political foes thought they had loopholes because they believed he did not have a school certificate.
“So many people have taken him to court. Even late Gani Fawehinmi took him to court and others, but he was able to defend himself and he won the case. He is a politician who has gone through several court trials and nothing has been found against him.
“I went with him (Tinubu) to several schools to receive awards in 2002 as the best student and as one of the best alumni in terms of performance and others.”
Thomas added, “I took several pictures with him and other staff members at the Chicago State University. I am still surprised that people are trying to turn this into a scandal which is not.
“If he had committed a crime, he would have retired from politics. The third vendor adventure is what actually confused a lot of people. It has been manipulated, misrepresented and misunderstood by his enemies and political adversaries.
“I am sure most of these people who are speaking on the gender case will also have typo errors or complications as this in some of their own school documents.”
Speaking further, he said, “All that I saw during the entire campaign was mischief. There is an aspect of it which I will call political exhibitionism. Those principals who started the whole process who began this fishing expedition knew what they wanted to achieve.”
