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Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja has scheduled November 20 to decide whether former Vice President Atiku Abubakar can amend his suit seeking to prevent President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) from contesting the 2027 presidential election.

The judge announced the date on Tuesday after Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), pressed for changes to his claims against Tinubu, while the President and the APC strongly opposed the request.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Joseph Silas Onu, counsel to Atiku, adopted his application seeking the court’s permission to amend the originating summons filed against Tinubu and the APC to include additional allegations.

Onu explained that the proposed changes would enable the plaintiff to present further evidence in support of his claims in the ongoing certificate forgery dispute.

Atiku and the ADC had submitted the application on September 10, asking the court to grant them permission to amend their originating summons and recognise the revised documents as properly filed.

They explained that they had identified errors in the original suit, including the description of an INEC document as Form CF001 instead of Form EC9A.

The applicants also argued that the amendment was required to provide specific details of the alleged fraud, incorporate a written deposition by Atiku and attach clearer copies of exhibits that were unavailable when the case was initially filed.

However, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, who appeared for Tinubu, opposed the application, arguing that the parties had already joined issues and that the former vice president should not be allowed to alter his case midway through the proceedings.

Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Akin Olujimi, SAN, who represented the APC, also challenged the request on similar grounds, urging the court to refuse the proposed amendment.

Another senior lawyer, Dr Alex Izinyon, equally asked Justice Ekwo to dismiss the application and proceed to hear the substantive case.

After listening to the arguments presented by the parties, Justice Ekwo fixed November 20 for his ruling on the application.

Atiku and the ADC had instituted the substantive suit seeking the disqualification of Tinubu and the APC from the 2027 presidential election over the President’s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

They alleged that the NYSC certificate submitted by the APC to INEC was forged and asked the court to direct the electoral commission to remove Tinubu and his party from the list of candidates and political parties participating in the election.

The central issue raised by Atiku and the ADC is that the NYSC discharge certificate presented by Tinubu bears the name Bola Adekunle rather than his widely known name, Bola Tinubu.

Tinubu and the APC have rejected the allegations, asking the court to dismiss the case.

The President also opposed the amendment request, maintaining that the proposed changes went beyond correcting errors and would introduce additional reliefs, documents and facts into the proceedings.

Tinubu’s legal team further argued that the substantive suit was statute-barred. According to them, the cause of action arose when his name was submitted to INEC on July 11, whereas the suit was filed on August 14.

INEC also objected to the proposed amendment, arguing that it would introduce a new cause of action and attempt to correct defects in the original suit after the constitutional deadline for filing pre-election cases had expired.

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