Certificate Forgery Suit: APC to be served as Bola Tinubu remains unreachable

An Abuja Federal High Court has named the All Progressives Congress Secretariat as a substituted service for the APC, presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.

What happened?: Four APC chieftains had approached the court and sought Tinubu’s disqualification from the presidential election because he allegedly submitted false information to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The controversy around Tinubu's school certificate: In a 33-paragraph affidavit in support of the suit deposed to by one Ibiang Miko Ibiang, the plaintiffs said Tinubu lied in an affidavit presented to INEC in 1999 in which he claimed to have attended St Paul Aroloya Children Home School, Ibadan -1958-64, and Government College, Ibadan -1965-68.

What is going on now?: Ruling on an ex-parte application, the judge, Ahmed Mohammed, granted an order for substituted service on Tinubu.

The plaintiffs’ counsel, Goddy Uche informed the court that substituted service has become necessary because all attempts to serve the presidential candidate proved abortive.

What is Substituted Service in law?: Substituted Service can only be employed when, for any reason, a Defendant cannot be served personally with the processes within the jurisdiction of the court. For example, when the Defendant cannot be traced or when it is known that the Defendant is evading service.

What this means: it has proven difficult to serve Tinubu the law suit directly, for whatever reason. Therefore, the court will serve someone or a body, on behalf of Tinubu.

The court serves Tinubu via APC: The court ordered that court processes should be served on the national secretariat of the APC and that such service shall be deemed as having been properly served on Tinubu.

He fixed September 7 to hear a suit seeking to disqualify the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu from participating in the 2023 elections.