Tinubu Moves to Knock Out Atiku, ADC 2027 Disqualification Suit

…Says NYSC Never Disowned Certificate—ADC Candidate Lacks Locus Standi to Challenge APC Nomination

By Yinka Giwa
President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress, APC, have mounted a robust defence against the legal attempt by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to stop the President from seeking re-election in 2027, asking the Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss the case for lack of evidence and legal standing.

Tinubu and the APC, in a joint counter-affidavit filed on September 9, rejected allegations that the President submitted a forged National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, discharge certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, insisting that all documents presented to the electoral body were authentic.

Atiku, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, and his party had instituted suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1888/2026 seeking to disqualify Tinubu and the APC from the 2027 presidential election over the disputed NYSC document.

But the President and the ruling party told the court that a central weakness in Atiku’s case was the absence of any evidence from the NYSC disowning the certificate attributed to Tinubu.

The APC’s Director of Legal Services, Sanusi Samaila, who deposed to the counter-affidavit, maintained that the NYSC had never denied issuing Tinubu a discharge certificate.

He also disputed the plaintiffs’ claim that Tinubu submitted Form CF001 to INEC and said the documents actually presented by the President were authentic and were accepted by the electoral commission.

According to the affidavit, INEC subsequently published Tinubu’s particulars as the APC presidential candidate. The party said it formally submitted the names of its candidates to the electoral commission on 26 June, while INEC acknowledged receipt of the President’s profile on 11 July.

Beyond challenging the substance of the forgery allegation, Tinubu and the APC are asking the court to throw out the suit on the threshold question of whether Atiku is legally entitled to challenge the ruling party’s choice of candidate.

Samaila argued that Atiku was neither an APC member nor an aspirant who participated in the presidential primary through which Tinubu emerged as the party’s candidate and therefore lacked the locus standi to challenge the nomination.

He maintained that Atiku and the ADC were not challenging an action taken by INEC or alleging that the electoral commission violated the Constitution or Electoral Act, but were effectively seeking to interfere with the APC’s internal nomination process.

In a written address supporting the objection, counsel to Tinubu and the APC, Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN, attacked the evidential foundation of the suit, arguing that an allegation of forgery is criminal in nature and must be established beyond reasonable doubt.

Olujinmi said the plaintiffs had produced neither evidence from the NYSC denying that it issued the President’s discharge certificate nor the original document against which the allegedly forged certificate could be compared.

Relying on previous Supreme Court decisions, the senior advocate argued that an allegation of forgery could not be sustained merely by assertion without evidence from the authority responsible for issuing the disputed document and the necessary documentary material to establish the alleged falsification.

The defence consequently described Atiku and the ADC’s case as speculative and founded on hypothetical questions rather than established facts.

Olujinmi further argued that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate what legally enforceable right of theirs had been violated by Tinubu’s nomination or the submission of his particulars to INEC.

The President and APC also raised a limitation defence, contending that aspects of the action were statute-barred because a pre-election challenge arising from the submission of documents ought to have been commenced within the constitutionally prescribed period.

They maintained that the suit, as presently constituted, was incompetent as a pre-election matter under the Constitution and Electoral Act.

According to the defence, the law reserves challenges to a political party’s nomination process principally for aspirants who actually participated in the primary election concerned, rather than candidates of rival political parties.

Tinubu and the APC therefore urged the court to uphold their preliminary objection and dismiss Atiku and the ADC’s suit in its entirety.

Justice Inyang Ekwo has fixed September 28 for hearing.