Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed November 20 to deliver a ruling on an application by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar seeking permission to amend his suit challenging President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s participation in the 2027 presidential election.

The judge fixed the date on Tuesday after hearing arguments from Atiku’s legal team and lawyers representing Tinubu and the APC, who opposed the proposed amendment.

At Tuesday’s proceedings, Joseph Silas Onu, counsel to Atiku, adopted his application seeking permission to amend the originating summons filed against Tinubu and the APC.

Onu explained that the amendment would enable the plaintiff to present additional evidence in support of his allegations against the President and his party in the certificate forgery case.

Atiku and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) filed the application on September 10, seeking leave to amend their originating summons and have the proposed amended documents deemed properly filed.

They said they discovered errors in the original suit, including the incorrect reference to an Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) form as Form CF001 instead of Form EC9A.

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

However, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, who represented Tinubu, opposed the application, arguing that the parties had already joined issues and that Atiku should not be allowed to change the terms of the case midway through proceedings.

A former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Akin Olujimi, SAN, who represented the APC, also urged the court to reject the application.

Another senior lawyer, Dr Alex Izinyon, similarly asked Justice Ekwo to dismiss the request and proceed to hear the substantive suit.

After listening to the arguments, the judge fixed November 20 to rule on the application.

Atiku and the ADC had filed the main 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 INEC.

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

Their main contention 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 denied the allegations and asked the court to dismiss the suit.

Tinubu also opposed the amendment application, arguing that the proposed changes went beyond correcting errors and would introduce new reliefs, documents and facts into the case.

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

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