President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss a suit filed by the presidential candidate of the Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, challenging Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the 2027 presidential election.
Atiku and the ADC, in suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1888/2026, are seeking an order disqualifying Tinubu and the APC from the 2027 poll, alleging that the president submitted a forged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, in a joint counter-affidavit filed on Sept. 9, Tinubu and the APC denied the allegation, insisting that no forged certificate was submitted to INEC for either the 2023 or 2027 presidential elections.
The APC’s Director of Legal Services, Sanusi Samaila, who deposed to the affidavit, said Tinubu did not submit Form CF001 to INEC as alleged by the plaintiffs and maintained that the NYSC had never denied issuing the president a discharge certificate.
He added that all documents submitted by Tinubu to INEC were authentic and accepted by the electoral commission, which subsequently published his particulars as the APC’s candidate for both the 2023 and 2027 presidential elections.
Samaila further argued that Atiku lacked the legal standing to challenge Tinubu’s nomination because he was neither a member of the APC nor a participant in the party’s presidential primary that produced Tinubu as its candidate.
According to him, the plaintiffs were not challenging any action of INEC or alleging any breach of the Constitution or the Electoral Act, but were merely questioning the APC’s nomination process, an internal party affair.
He said the APC formally submitted the names of its candidates to INEC on June 26, while the commission acknowledged receipt of Tinubu’s profile on July 11.
In a written address supporting the application, APC and Tinubu’s counsel, Chief Akin Olujinmi (SAN), argued that the allegation of forgery, being a criminal offence, must be proved beyond reasonable doubt under the Evidence Act.
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He said Atiku and the ADC failed to provide any evidence from the NYSC disclaiming the issuance of the discharge certificate or produce the original document from which the alleged forgery was made.
Olujinmi argued that, under established Supreme Court decisions, a claim of forgery cannot succeed without evidence from the issuing authority and the allegedly forged document.
He also contended that the suit was speculative and based on hypothetical questions rather than established facts, stressing that the plaintiffs had not shown how their legal rights had been infringed.
The senior lawyer further submitted that parts of the suit were statute-barred because any challenge to the submission of Tinubu’s documents ought to have been filed within 14 days of the alleged action.
He argued that the case was incompetent as a pre-election matter under the Constitution and the Electoral Act, adding that only an aspirant who participated in a party’s primary could challenge its nomination process.
Describing the plaintiffs as lacking the required locus standi, Olujinmi urged the court to uphold the preliminary objection and dismiss the suit in its entirety.
Justice Inyang Ekwo has fixed September 28 for hearing of the matter.
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