Abuja court to decide on November 20 whether to amend lawsuit against Tinubu — Premium Times Nigeria
The Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria, has scheduled November 20 to deliver a ruling on a motion by Atiku Abubakar and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to amend their lawsuit against President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC). The plaintiffs seek to bar Tinubu and the APC from the 2027 presidential election. Premium Times Nigeria reports.
Abubakar, the ADC presidential candidate, filed the lawsuit in August. The defendants in the case also include Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The plaintiffs are asking the court to order INEC to remove Tinubu and the APC from the lists of candidates and parties in the presidential election scheduled for January 16, 2027.
What amendments the plaintiffs are seeking
Abubakar and the ADC are seeking to correct errors in procedural documents, submit clearer copies of annexes, and provide more detail on their allegations concerning an allegedly forged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate of completion. According to the plaintiffs, the APC submitted this document to INEC in support of Tinubu’s nomination.
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In particular, they said they mistakenly referred to INEC form EC9A as form CF001. According to them, EC9A is the current candidate personal data declaration form, which replaced the previous CF001 designation. The plaintiffs also want to add Abubakar’s written testimony and higher-quality copies of documents. They insist that the amendments do not raise new issues and contain no additional claims.
Defendants’ objections
Lawyers for Tinubu, the APC, and INEC urged the court to dismiss the motion. The president’s representative, Wole Olanipekun, said the proposed amendments would effectively amount to filing a new lawsuit rather than correcting the existing one. He also argued that the deadlines set by Nigeria’s Constitution for filing such a lawsuit had expired.
Representatives of the APC and INEC supported these objections. INEC said the amendments could introduce a new cause of action or remedy a jurisdictional defect after the 14-day deadline for filing a pre-election lawsuit had expired. In their objections to the main lawsuit, Tinubu and the APC rejected allegations that a forged certificate had been submitted, adding that the NYSC had not disputed issuing the document to the president.
