Alleged NYSC Cert Forgery: Atiku Ordered To Serve Tinubu Court Papers

The controversy over President Bola Tinubu’s eligibility to contest the 2027 presidential election has taken a fresh turn, with the Federal High Court in Abuja granting former Vice President Atiku Abubakar permission to serve court processes on the President through the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Justice Inyang Ekwo granted the application on Wednesday following an ex parte motion filed by Atiku’s counsel, O.T. Omotayo-Ojo, seeking an order for substituted service.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, and his party are challenging the participation of Tinubu and the APC in the 2027 presidential election, alleging that a forged National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, discharge certificate was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1888/2026, listed Tinubu, the APC and INEC as the first, second and third defendants respectively.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to compel INEC to remove Tinubu’s name and that of the APC from the list of candidates and political parties for the 2027 presidential election.
The application for substituted service became necessary, according to Atiku’s counsel, because efforts to personally serve Tinubu with the originating summons and other court processes had been unsuccessful.
Omotayo-Ojo therefore asked the court to permit the documents to be served on the President through the APC.
Justice Ekwo granted the request and ordered the plaintiffs to effect service within seven days, following an undertaking by Omotayo-Ojo, who held the brief of Silas Onu.
The court subsequently adjourned the matter until September 28 for mention.
But while Atiku and the ADC are pressing ahead with the case, Tinubu, the APC and INEC have mounted legal challenges to the suit.
In their joint counter-affidavit filed on September 9, Tinubu and the APC asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that it was incompetent and that the plaintiffs lacked the legal right to institute the action.
The defendants  also denied submitting any forged certificate to INEC for either the 2023 or 2027 presidential elections.
The defendants, through the APC Director of Legal Services, Sanusi Samaila, further denied submitting Form CF001 to INEC for either election as alleged by the plaintiffs.
They maintained that the NYSC had never denied issuing a discharge certificate to Tinubu at the end of his service.
In a written address filed alongside their preliminary objection, counsel to Tinubu and the APC, Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN, argued that the allegation of forgery was criminal in nature and must be proved beyond reasonable doubt under Section 135(1) of the Evidence Act.
Olujinmi argued that an allegation that a certificate was forged must be backed by a disclaimer from the institution purported to have issued the document.
He contended that Atiku and the ADC had produced no evidence from the NYSC Directorate disclaiming the issuance of Tinubu’s discharge certificate.
The senior lawyer consequently described the suit as hypothetical and academic and urged the court to dismiss it.
He also challenged the competence of the case on the grounds that it was a pre-election matter, arguing that the plaintiffs lacked the locus standi to challenge Tinubu’s candidacy on the APC platform.
INEC has similarly challenged the suit.
In its preliminary objection filed on September 7 through its counsel, Dr Alex Izinyon, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, the electoral commission cited several grounds, including statute-bar, lack of locus standi, absence of a reasonable cause of action and abuse of court process.
INEC also alleged 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.
The commission further challenged the propriety of Reliefs 2 and 3 in the originating summons and urged the court to dismiss the case.