The 2027 presidential race in Nigeria took a dramatic legal turn overnight as the Federal High
Court in Abuja granted former Vice President Atiku Abubakar permission to serve President
Bola Tinubu — through his party, the All Progressives Congress — with a suit seeking to
disqualify him from contesting the next general election over alleged certificate forgery.
Justice Inyang Ekwo issued the substituted-service order in a ruling that is dominating Nigerian
newspaper front pages this Thursday morning. The judge gave Atiku and the African Democratic
Congress (ADC), his new political vehicle, seven days to serve the President with the originating
court processes and fixed September 28 for mention of the case.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1888/2026, names President Tinubu, the APC and the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as first, second and third defendants
respectively. Atiku and the ADC allege that the APC submitted a forged National Youth Service
Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate on Tinubu’s behalf to INEC — a claim the Presidency has
repeatedly rejected.
The application for substituted service, moved by Atiku’s counsel O.T. Omotayo-Ojo, argued
that ordinary service had been impossible because of the President’s security detail and travel
schedule. Tinubu is currently on a three-week working leave in Paris.
Politically, the ruling is a bombshell. It effectively forces the ruling APC — Tinubu’s own party —
to become the vehicle through which its own leader is served with a lawsuit seeking to strip him
of his eligibility. APC insiders reached Thursday morning described the situation as “deeply
awkward” and warned that the party’s legal team would move fast to preserve its position.
For Atiku, this is the boldest legal move yet in his post-2023 political rebirth. Having decamped
from the PDP to the ADC to lead a “Rainbow Coalition” against Tinubu, the former Vice
President has staked much of his 2027 strategy on disqualifying the incumbent rather than
beating him at the ballot box.
The certificate forgery allegation has been a running sore since 2023, when the Supreme Court
dismissed similar claims for lack of standing and procedural grounds. Atiku’s legal team believes
the ADC-fronted suit corrects the procedural defects that sank the earlier case.
The APC Presidential Campaign Council has yet to issue a formal response. Party spokesman
Bayo Onanuga, however, is expected to address the media in Abuja later Thursday. In a
separate development, the PCC this morning also urged President Tinubu to intervene in a
dispute between FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and APC governors over the Rainbow Coalition
ahead of 2027 — a sign that the party is fighting on multiple fronts.
Legal analysts caution that certificate cases in Nigerian courts often stretch for years, and that
even if Atiku prevails at first instance, appeals could push a final ruling well beyond the 2027
election cycle. Still, the political symbolism of a sitting president being served with a
disqualification suit through his own party is unprecedented.
For Nigerians already grappling with petrol at N1,500 per litre in many northern states and a
naira trading around N1,395 to the dollar on the parallel market, the courtroom drama is
another reminder that the 2027 season has already begun — and it is going to be messy.
