The Abuja division of the Federal High Court has dismissed a certificate forgery suit filed by the Action Alliance (AA) against Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
AA had on 21 June approached the court for an order restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from accepting and publishing Tinubu’s name as a candidate in the forthcoming general election.
The party equally asked the court for another order restraining the electoral umpire from including APC as a political party in the ballot for the conduct of the 2023 presidential election.
AA predicated its request on the claim that both the APC and its presidential candidate, Tinubu, are not qualified to participate in the 2023 presidential election on alleged certificate forgery committed by Tinubu in 1999.
The party argued that Tinubu, having forged the University of Chicago certificate he submitted to INEC in the 1999 general elections as a gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State, was not qualified to contest for the office of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It, therefore, prayed the court to declare that the third defendant’s claim that he attended Government College, Ibadan and the University of Chicago on his INEC Form CF 001 in 1999, which he presented to INEC, is false.
The party also urged the court to further declare that the alleged false information on Tinubu’s INEC Form CF 001 about his BSc degree in Economics from the University of Chicago “is a forged certificate”.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/954/2022, AA is the sole plaintiff while INEC, APC and Tinubu are the first, second and third defendants respectively.
Delivering judgment on Tuesday, Justice Obiora Egwuatu held that the suit instituted by AA was no longer legally enforceable because the prescribed period of 14 days provided for under the 1999 constitution (as amended by the Fourth Alteration Act) has elapsed, adding that the court lacked the requisite jurisdiction to entertain it or grant the reliefs sought by the plaintiff.
The judge, who said the plaintiff lacked the right to file the suit, also held that the party acted like a busybody, having interfered in the internal affairs of another party.
He consequently dismissed the suit for constituting an abuse of the court process.
