Proceedings before a Federal High Court in Abuja stalled yesterday in a suit filed by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar seeking to disqualify President Bola Tinubu from the January 16, 2027 presidential election.
Atiku, by his suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1888/2026, filed in his name and that of his party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), also listed the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as defendants.
At the commencement of proceedings, Atiku’s lawyer, Mr Joseph Onu Silas, told the court his client was yet to serve the suit’s originating documents on President Tinubu personally, and sought an order to serve him through substituted means.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Omosanya Popoola, who led the legal team for President Tinubu and the APC, volunteered to accept service on the President’s behalf.
He urged the court to order Silas to hand him the documents in open court.
Silas objected, insisting Popoola first provide a written undertaking that he had Tinubu’s mandate to receive the documents.
A similar intervention by another SAN, Mr Alex Izinyon, representing INEC, was also declined.
Justice Inyang Ekwo adjourned the case till September 28 for further mention, to allow Atiku and his party ‘put their houses in order.’
The suit challenges provisions of the Electoral Act, 2026, which restrict who may question a candidate’s qualification at the pre-election stage.
It argues that such restrictions cannot override Section 137(1)(j) of the Constitution, which bars a candidate who has presented a forged certificate to INEC.
Atiku and the ADC want the court to invoke Sections 137(1)(j), 139(1)(a)(i) and 285(14)(c) of the Constitution, alongside the Electoral Act, to determine whether Tinubu and the APC should be disqualified.
In a supporting affidavit, Atiku alleged that President Tinubu submitted to INEC an NYSC discharge certificate bearing the name ‘Tinubu Bola Adekunle,’ which he said differs from the President’s name, and that the same document was resubmitted for the 2027 election.
He asked the court to determine whether the certificate belongs to Tinubu.
INEC has also been put on notice to produce Tinubu’s Form CF001 for the 2023 and 2027 elections.
‘These are questions that deserve answers, not political insults or presidential silence,’ Atiku said in the affidavit.
Omokri: No FBI criminal record against Tinubu
Separately, Nigeria’s Ambassador-designate to Mexico, Mr Reno Omokri, said President Tinubu has no criminal record with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), citing what he described as a 2003 FBI communication clearing the President of any arrest record or warrant.
Speaking on the City Boy Movement Media programme with Otega Ogra, Omokri, a former presidential spokesman and one-time Tinubu critic, argued that a distinction should be drawn between the FBI holding records on an individual and that person having a criminal record.
He read from the document, saying a check of the FBI’s National Crime Information Center in 2003 returned negative for any arrest records or warrants against Tinubu.
He dismissed suggestions that a current US legal matter amounted to a fresh criminal case, saying it stemmed from a Freedom of Information Act request by transparency advocate Aaron Greenspan relating to a 1993 investigation that did not target Tinubu.