Alleged Forgery: AA In Court To Stop Tinubu, APC From 2023 Presidential Poll
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – Following alleged forgery of the University of Chicago certificate he submitted in 1999 in support of his qualification for the 1999 governorship election in Lagos State, the Action Alliance (AA) party has prayed a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from including the name of the 2023 presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Bola Tinubu and the Party on the 2023 presidential ballot.
The AA specifically urged the Court for another order restraining INEC from accepting the name of Tinubu as candidate of the APC in the 2023 presidential election.
The party in the Writ of Summon marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/954/2022, argued that the duo of the APC and its presidential candidate, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, are not qualified to participate in the 2023 presidential election based on an alleged forgery committed by Tinubu in 1999.
In the suit filed by its legal Counsel, Mr. Upkai Ukairo Esq, the AA said that the matter of false information by Tinubu was once reported to the Inspector General of Police and the Lagos State House of Assembly, after which the Assembly set up a committee whose report at page 2 stated that among other things that the Governor of Lagos State admitted in evidence full responsibility for some of the needless errors that were pinpointed in recent publications and which formed the basis of the allegations against him.
The suit has the INEC, APC and Tinubu as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively.
The plaintiff in a 16-paragraph statement deposed to by Mr. Kalu Agu, submitted that the 3rd defendant (Tinubu) is not qualified for election to the office of President of Nigeria on the grounds of alleged forgery.
The deponent further said that Tinubu had provided false information and attached forged documents in his form CF 001 which he submitted to INEC in 1999 as part of documents to qualify him for the governorship poll, stressing that the claim of Tinubu that he possesses B.Sc degrees in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Chicago and Chicago State University in 1976 and 1979 respectively were false.
The plaintiff further said; “The 3rd defendant knew he did not possess all the educational qualifications he listed in the said INEC form”.
AA therefore contended that arising from the above, Tinubu is not qualified for election into the office of President of Nigeria thus, prayed the Court to declare his claim that he attended Government College, Ibadan and University of Chicago on his INEC Form CF 001 in 1999 which he presented to INEC as false.
The plaintiff also prayed the court to further declare that the alleged false information on Tinubu’s INEC Form CF 001 about his B.Sc degree in Economics from the University of Chicago “is a forged certificate”.
It said in view of Section 137(1)(j) of the 1999 Constitution, the Court should declare that Tinubu haven in 1999 presented a forged certificate to INEC, is not qualified to contest for the office of president.
Other prayers by the plaintiff include; “A declaration that by virtue of Sections 224, 23 and 24 of the 1999 Constitution and the Constitution of the APC, the office of the President of Nigeria is to be occupied by a man of integrity and impeccable character”.
Accordingly, AA prayed the court for an order of perpetual injunction restraining INEC from publishing the name of Tinubu as candidate of the APC in the 2023 presidential election and also an order of perpetual injunction restraining the electoral body from listing the APC as a political party in the ballot for the 2023 presidential poll.
The Court is yet to fix a date for the hearing of the suit.
