The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has opposed an application by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to amend his suit seeking the disqualification of President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the 2027 presidential election.
Atiku and the ADC had filed the suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja, alleging that Tinubu submitted a forged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate to INEC. They are asking the court to disqualify the President and the APC from participating in the 2027 presidential election and direct INEC to remove their names from the list of candidates.
The case, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1888/2026, lists President Tinubu, the APC and INEC as the first, second and third defendants respectively.
INEC, in a counter-affidavit filed on September 10 through its lawyer, Dr Alex Izinyon (SAN), urged the court to reject the application to amend the suit.
The commission argued that its preliminary objection challenging the competence of the suit was still pending and should be determined before any amendment could be entertained.
INEC had earlier filed a preliminary objection on September 7, contending that the suit was statute-barred, that the plaintiffs lacked the legal standing to institute the action, disclosed no reasonable cause of action and amounted to an abuse of court process.
The commission also argued that the plaintiffs failed to comply with the mandatory written deposition requirement under the Federal High Court (Pre-Election) Practice Directions (Amendment) 2026.
According to INEC, the proposed amendment goes beyond correcting clerical errors and seeks to introduce fresh issues after the constitutional 14-day deadline for filing pre-election matters.
In the counter-affidavit deposed to by litigation secretary Mendie Akpan, the commission said the amendment sought to replace references to Form CF001 with Form EC9A, attach a written deposition that was not filed with the original suit, reformulate reliefs and provide clearer documentary exhibits.
Akpan argued that granting the application would effectively introduce a new cause of action and cure jurisdictional defects after the time allowed by Section 285(9) of the Constitution had expired.
She maintained that the plaintiffs’ failure to file a written deposition alongside the originating summons was a fundamental defect, particularly as the suit was founded on allegations of forgery.
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According to her, granting the amendment would prejudice INEC by compelling it to respond to what she described as a substantially different case outside the constitutional time limit.
The commission therefore urged the court to dismiss the application in the interest of justice.
Meanwhile, President Tinubu and the APC have also asked the court to dismiss the suit, arguing that it is incompetent and that Atiku and the ADC lack the legal standing to challenge Tinubu’s candidacy.
In a joint counter-affidavit, the President and the APC denied submitting any forged certificate to INEC for either the 2023 or 2027 presidential elections.
They maintained that the NYSC had never denied issuing Tinubu’s discharge certificate and argued that the plaintiffs had failed to produce any evidence from the scheme disowning the certificate.
Justice Inyang Ekwo is expected to hear the matter as parties continue to exchange legal processes over the suit.
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