All eyes are on Nigeria’s courts as the world watches a high stakes legal battle over allegations of certificate forgery that could affect President Bola Tinubu’s bid to contest the 2027 presidential election.
According to the Federal High Court in Abuja has given African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar seven days to serve a suit seeking to stop President Bola Tinubu from contesting the 2027 presidential election over alleged forged certificates submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Justice Inyang Ekwo made the order on Wednesday and approved substituted service of the court papers on the president through the All Progressives Congress.
Lawyer Olanrewaju Omotayo Ojo appeared for Silas Onu who could not attend because of a family death.
The suit is marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1888/2026. Atiku filed it with the African Democratic Congress as second plaintiff. President Tinubu the All Progressives Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission are listed as the first second and third defendants.
NN News Media reports that Atiku swore a 25 paragraph affidavit in support of the case. He said the president submitted a forged National Youth Service Corps discharge certificate to the electoral body as part of the papers used to seek the presidency. He said the president also gave false personal details in Form CF0001. The certificate attached as Exhibit P2 bears the name Tinubu Bola Adekunle. Related papers earlier placed before election courts also carried the name Bola Adekunle Tinubu. The discharge number on the certificate is given as OY/FORN/82/9106. The document is said to cover service from November 1982 to November 1983 with a posting linked to Oyo State and work at Haboni Engineering Company in Ibadan. Atiku said the certificate belongs to a person named Adekunle and not to the president whose public name is Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He said the same document has been used since 1999 when the president contested the Lagos State governorship election and that it remains in the custody of the electoral commission. He also said the same National Youth Service Corps certificate was submitted with Form CF0001 for the 2023 presidential election and again for 2027.
Atiku therefore urged the court among other things to determine whether in view of the limitations in section 138 subsection 1 paragraphs a and b of the Electoral Act 2026 and section 285 subsection 14 paragraph c of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended the plaintiffs will not be allowed to enforce the binding provision of section 137 subsection 1 paragraph j of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended which applies mutatis mutandis to all candidates aspiring to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He also urged the court to determine whether the first and second defendants should be disqualified for presenting a forged National Youth Service Corps certificate to the third defendant for the 2023 and 2027 presidential elections in breach of section 137 subsection 1 paragraph j of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.
Upon a positive determination of those legal questions the plaintiffs sought a declaration that the first defendant presented a forged certificate to the third defendant when he contested for governor of Lagos State in 1999 and thereby breached the provision of section 137 subsection 1 paragraph j of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.
They likewise sought an order disqualifying the first and second defendants from participating in the 2027 presidential election for presenting a forged certificate to the third defendant when the first defendant contested for governor of Lagos State in 1999.
The court had earlier slated 28 September to commence full hearing of the case. The Independent National Electoral Commission has also filed processes challenging the competence of the suit and urged the court to dismiss the case in its entirety.
Nigerians are asking whether the court can redeem the country and redeem itself from shame as all eyes are on Nigeria’s court across the globe.
