The Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned until 28 September further hearing on the case seeking to bar President Bola Tinubu from contesting the 2027 presidential election on grounds of alleged certificate forgery.
The action was filed by Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress. The party is named as second plaintiff. President Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission are the first, second and third defendants.
In a 25-paragraph affidavit sworn by Atiku himself, the former vice president alleges that President Tinubu lodged a false National Youth Service Corps discharge certificate with INEC in support of his qualification to run for the presidency. The plaintiffs also contend that he supplied untrue particulars about himself in Form CF001 submitted to the electoral body.
They point to the NYSC document placed before INEC, which they say carries the name Tinubu Bola Adekunle. Atiku states that the certificate is not one obtained by the first defendant, that it belongs to a person named Adekunle, and that it is attached to the papers as Exhibit P2. He further avers that the document remains in INEC’s custody, that it is a forgery because the first defendant’s name is not Adekunle, and that it was nonetheless presented to the commission to be treated as genuine.
