A ruling on Atiku Abubakar’s request to amend his lawsuit to exclude Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the 2027 presidential election is scheduled by Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja on November 20.
In light of the strong opposition to the bid by Tinubu and the APC, as well as Atiku Abubakar’s demands that he modify his accusations against Tinubu, the judge set Tuesday as the new date.
Joseph Silas Onu, who represented Atiku, asked the court to expand the original summons against Tinubu and the APC to include additional accusations during Tuesday’s proceedings.
According to the attorney, the plaintiff is attempting to gather further evidence in the certificate forgery case against Tinubu and his party by requesting an amendment.
Atiku and the ADC requested permission to modify their original summons and have the revised procedure considered appropriately filed on September 10th.
They found mistakes in the initial lawsuit, such as calling an INEC form Form CF001 instead of Form EC9A, they said.
They further stated that the specifics of the purported fraud, including Atiku’s written deposition, and the availability of clearer versions of evidence that were unavailable at the time of suit filing necessitated the change.
Nevertheless, Tinubu’s lawyer Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, spoke out against Atiku’s campaign, saying that the former vice president cannot change the course of events now that the two parties are at odds with one another.
Akin Olujimi, SAN, a former AGF and Minister of Justice, likewise spoke against Atiku and urged the judge to reject his motion on the same grounds. Olujimi was representing the APC.
Legal heavyweight Dr. Alex Izinyon took a similar stance when he urged Justice Ekwo to reject the modification motion and move on to the main issue.
After hearing all sides of the case, Justice Ekwo set a hearing for November 20 to make a decision.
It was on the president’s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate that Atiku and the ADC initially sought to disqualify Tinubu and the APC from running for president in 2027. The lawsuit was brought with the intention of removing them from the race.
In their petition, they requested that the electoral body strike Tinubu and the APC off the ballots, claiming that the party had submitted a fake NYSC discharge certificate to INEC.
The fact that Bola Adekunle’s name appears on Tinubu’s NYSC discharge certificate instead of the more famous Bola Tinubu was the primary gripe of Atiku and the ADC.
The APC and Tinubu have requested the court to dismiss the case because they deny the accusation.
Tinubu rejected the request because, in his view, the suggested changes would do more than just fix mistakes; they would also bring in new reliefs, documents, and facts.
The legal team representing the president also contended that the substantive claim was statute-barred. They maintained that the act of submitting Tinubu’s name to INEC on July 11 gave rise to the cause of action, but the suit was not filed until August 14.
Another group that was against the proposal was INEC. They said that it would open the door to a new legal action that would try to fix problems with an earlier lawsuit after the constitutional time for pre-election case filings had passed.