2027: Court to rule on Atiku’s bid to amend Tinubu suit Nov 20

A Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed November 20 to rule on an application by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to amend his suit seeking the disqualification of President Bola Tinubu from the 2027 presidential election over alleged certificate forgery.

Justice Inyang Ekwo fixed the date on Tuesday after hearing arguments from Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and the respondents, including Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC), who opposed the application.

At Tuesday’s proceedings, Joseph Silas Onu, counsel for Atiku, adopted the application seeking leave to amend the originating summons filed against Tinubu and the APC.

Onu said the amendment was intended to enable the plaintiff to present additional evidence in the certificate forgery suit.

Atiku and the ADC had, on September 10, filed the application seeking permission to amend their originating summons and have the proposed amended processes deemed properly filed.

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They said they discovered errors in the original suit, including the description of an INEC form as Form CF001 instead of Form EC9A.

The applicants also argued that the amendment was necessary to provide details of the alleged fraud, include a written deposition by Atiku and attach clearer copies of exhibits that were unavailable when the suit was filed.

However, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, counsel for Tinubu, opposed the application, arguing that the parties had already joined issues and that Atiku should not be allowed to alter his case at this stage.

A former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Akin Olujimi, SAN, who represented the APC, also urged the court to reject the application on similar grounds.

Counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Dr Alex Izinyon, SAN, equally opposed the request, urging the court to dismiss it and proceed to the substantive suit.

After hearing the parties’ arguments, Justice Ekwo fixed November 20 for his ruling on the application.

Atiku and the ADC had filed the substantive suit seeking the disqualification of Tinubu and the APC from the 2027 presidential election over the President’s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate submitted to INEC.

They alleged that the NYSC certificate submitted to the electoral commission was forged and asked the court to direct INEC to remove Tinubu and the APC from the list of candidates and political parties for the election.

Their argument centres on the name on the certificate, which they said bears “Bola Adekunle” rather than the name “Bola Tinubu.”

Tinubu and the APC have denied the allegation and urged the court to dismiss the suit.

In opposing the amendment, Tinubu argued that the proposed changes went beyond correcting errors and would introduce new reliefs, documents, and facts into the case.

His legal team also contended that the substantive suit was statute-barred, arguing that the cause of action arose on July 11, when Tinubu’s name was submitted to INEC, while the suit was filed on August 14.

INEC also opposed the application, arguing that the proposed amendment would introduce a new cause of action and attempt to remedy defects in the original suit after the constitutional deadline for filing pre-election cases had expired.