A former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, AGF, Akin Olujinmi, SAN, has told the Federal High Court in Abuja that the allegation of forgery of a National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, discharge certificate brought against President Bola Tinubu by Atiku Abubakar was unfounded, baseless and speculative.
Olujinmi, SAN, who has emerged as lead counsel for Tinubu in
the eligibility suit, accused Atiku of failing to provide any iota of evidence
from the NYSC before arriving at his allegation of forgery.
In a preliminary objection he filed against Atiku’s suit,
which is seeking the disqualification of Tinubu from the 2027 presidential
election, the ex-AGF faulted the former vice president on all fronts on the
basis of the certificate forgery allegation.
In the court papers, the senior lawyer argued that both
Atiku and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) failed to provide evidence from
the NYSC disclaiming the issuance of the discharge certificate to Tinubu or
produce the original document from which the alleged forgery was made.
Atiku and ADC have, in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1888/2026,
applied for an order of the court to disqualify Tinubu and the All Progressives
Congress (APC) from the 2027 election on the ground that Tinubu submitted a
forged NYSC discharge certificate to the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) to secure clearance for the election.
But while countering the allegation on behalf of Tinubu,
Olujinmi submitted that, under established laws, a claim of forgery cannot
stand without evidence from the issuing authority of the alleged forged
document.
Besides, the former AGF argued that the allegation of
forgery, being criminal in nature and content, must be proved beyond reasonable
doubt under the Evidence Act, but this had not been done by Atiku and ADC.
Olujinmi, SAN, contended that Atiku’s suit was speculative,
having been based on hypothetical questions rather than established facts, as
he had not shown how his legal rights had been infringed by Tinubu’s
nomination.
He argued that parts of the suit were even statute-barred on
the ground that any challenge to the submission of Tinubu’s documents to INEC
ought to have been filed within 14 days of the submission.
According to him, the case was incompetent as a pre-election
matter under the Constitution and the Electoral Act because only an aspirant
who participated in a party’s primary could challenge its nomination process.
Holding that Atiku lacked the required legal rights to
institute the suit, Olujinmi prayed the court to uphold the preliminary
objection and dismiss the suit in its entirety.
A joint counter-affidavit in support of the preliminary
objection denied Atiku’s allegation, insisting that no forged certificate was
submitted to INEC for either the 2023 or 2027 presidential elections.
The counter-affidavit was deposed to by APC’s Director of
Legal Services, Mr Sanusi Samaila, who asserted that Tinubu did not submit Form
CF001 to INEC as alleged by Atiku and ADC and maintained that the NYSC had
never denied issuing Tinubu a discharge certificate.
According to the legal adviser, all documents submitted by
Tinubu to INEC were authentic and accepted by the commission, after which it
subsequently published the particulars of the APC’s candidate for both the 2023
and 2027 presidential elections.
The counter-affidavit indicated that Atiku lacked the legal
right to challenge Tinubu’s nomination because he was neither a member of the
APC nor a participant in the party’s presidential primary that produced Tinubu
as its candidate.
According to the counter-affidavit, both Atiku and ADC were
not challenging any action of INEC or alleging any breach of the Constitution
or the Electoral Act, but were just questioning the APC’s nomination process as
an internal affair of the party.
The counter-affidavit also indicated that the APC formally
submitted the names of its candidates to INEC on June 26, while INEC
acknowledged receipt of Tinubu’s profile on July 11. It therefore asked the
Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss the suit.
It will be recalled that Justice Inyang Ekwo, at the last
proceedings, fixed September 28 for hearing of the matter.
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