Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has granted former Vice President Atiku Abubakar leave to serve court processes on President Bola Tinubu through the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Justice Ekwo granted the order on Wednesday while ruling on an ex-parte application filed by Atiku in a suit seeking to disqualify President Tinubu from contesting the January 16, 2027 presidential election.
Atiku filed the suit in his name and that of his party, the African Democratic Congress, ADC. His lawyer, Omotayo Ojo, who held the brief of Silas Onu, told the court that service would be effected within seven days.
In his ruling, Justice Ekwo ordered that service be done within seven days and adjourned the matter till September 28 for mention.
Onu had on September 1 told the court that his client had yet to serve the originating processes on Tinubu personally and required an order for substituted service.
Listed as defendants in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1888/2026 are Tinubu, the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Tinubu, APC and INEC have filed counter-affidavits and preliminary objections, challenging the competence of the suit and urging the court to dismiss it.
In a joint counter-affidavit filed on September 9, Tinubu and the APC asked the court to dismiss the suit on grounds that it is incompetent and that the plaintiffs lack locus standi.
The defendants denied submitting any forged certificate to INEC for the 2023 and 2027 presidential elections, stating that they did not submit any Form CF001 to the commission as claimed by the plaintiffs.
They further stated that the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, had never denied issuing a discharge certificate to the first defendant at the end of his service year.
They argued that contrary to paragraph 27 of the affidavit in support of the originating summons, no constitutional provision had been breached and no injustice had been done to the plaintiffs by submission of the President’s personal particulars to INEC.
In a written address filed by Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN, Tinubu and APC argued that allegation of forgery, being a crime, must be proved beyond reasonable doubt in line with Section 135(1) of the Evidence Act.
Olujinmi said the settled position of the law is that proof of forgery requires a disclaimer from the institution that purportedly issued the certificate, citing a Supreme Court decision.
He said without evidence from the issuing body disclaiming the certificate, it would be idle to contend that it is forged, adding that two documents must be produced – the original document and the alleged forged document.
According to him, Atiku and ADC produced no evidence from NYSC disclaiming issuance of discharge certificate to the first defendant.
He described the suit as hypothetical, academic, incompetent, being a pre-election matter, and said the plaintiffs lacked locus standi to challenge Tinubu’s candidacy.
INEC, in its preliminary objection filed on September 7 by its lawyer, Dr. Alex Izinyon, SAN, also challenged the competence of the suit on grounds of being statute-barred, want of locus standi, absence of reasonable cause of action and abuse of court process.
The commission also argued that the plaintiffs failed to comply with the mandatory written deposition requirement under Paragraph 7(1) of the Federal High Court Pre-Election Practice Directions (Amendment) 2026, and challenged the propriety of reliefs two and three in the originating summons.
