The controversy that trailed the details of credentials submitted by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Bola Tinubu, in his filing to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assumed a deeper dimension.

INEC had on Friday published details of candidates’ particulars and it was observed that there were discrepancies in the documents of Tinubu as against what he filled when he was contesting for the 1999 governorship election.

For instance, in the INEC Form CF001 submitted on June 17, 2022, Tinubu did not give details of his primary and secondary schools, neither did he attach copies of his certificates, which he claimed in an affidavit, had been stolen by unknown persons. H attached a court affidavit stating that he lost all his credentials following raids on his home during the military regime in the 1990s.

The recent claim by Tinubu did not tally with his deposition when he was contesting for the office of governor to the same INEC.

Findings showed that Tinubu had in previous submissions to INEC listed primary and secondary schools attended as St. Paul’s Aroloya and Children’s Home School, Ibadan from 1958 to 1964; and Government College, Ibadan from 1961 to 1971.

However, in his latest submission to INEC, Tinubu stated that he obtained a BSC degree from the Chicago State University.

In the affidavit deposed to in a Lagos High Court, he averred that, “I, Tinubu Bola Ahmed, hereby make oath and declare that I am the person seeking election into the office of president in the Nigerian constituency and the particulars given hereinunder are correct, true and to the best of my knowledge.”

This has triggered debates among Nigerians on social media with some calling on INEC to disqualify him for perjury. They argued that Tinubu must be hiding something with some claiming he might be masking his real age from the public. Tinubu’s age had been a subject of controversy after he claimed he was 69 years when information pieced from his earlier profile on internet and taking cognizance of the age of his daughter, placed his age at that time at 79, a good 10 years difference.

Tinubu claimed in an affidavit that the documents were looted during his exile, thus:

“I went on self-exile from October 1994 to October 1998 when I returned and discovered that all my property, including all the documents relating to my qualification and my certificates in respect of paragraph 3 above, were looted by unknown persons.

“My house was the target of searches by various security agents from the time the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was forced to adjourn following the military takeover of government on November 17, 1993, I was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Banking and Finance. I was also a plaintiff in one of the two suits against the Interim National Government in 1993.”

While some Nigerians have stoutly defended the former governor of Lagos, others have called for his arrest and prosecution on the ground of perjury.

One of the agitators is a civil society group, Center for Reform and Pubic Advocacy, which has written the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali, demanding the arrest and prosecution of Senator Tinubu within 48 hours over alleged perjury.

In a press statement, the legal adviser of the organisation, Kalu Kalu Agu, said the IGP had failed to act on an earlier letter dated June 16, 2022, accusing Tinubu of “false information on oath contrary to sections 191 and 192 of the Criminal Code Act, LFN, 2004, which he admitted he did not possess in Annexure C.”

The lawyer said the group would file for an order of mandamus to compel the IGP to perform his constitutional obligation in the interest of “good governance, accountability, probity and transparency.”

Social media had been awash with claims and counter claims on the Tinubu credentials saga.

One Mr. Femi Aribisala, tweeting from the handle, @femiaribisala, stated: “I wrote in 2014 that Tinubu’s affidavit that he attended Government College, Ibadan (GCI) between 1965 and 1968 was false. I was in GCI from 1962 to1968, and Tinubu was not there. Tinubu now tells the INEC that he did not go to primary or secondary school. This means he committed perjury.”

Also on twitter, one @Intel_Avatar wrote rather sarcastically:  “The God that made Tinubu to attend Chicago State University, get a first class degree and work in Exxon Mobil without attending primary and secondary schools, do that miracle in my life today.”

There appears to be a swelter of legal twists and turns in the coming weeks on the Tinubu certificate saga, with many Nigerians calling on INEC to come clear on the matter.