A group known as the Egalitarian
Mission for Africa has filed a suit before the federal high court in Abuja
challenging the qualification of Atiku Abubakar to contest in the presidential
election.
The group’s chairman is Olukayode
Ajulo, former national secretary of Labour Party who recently declared his
support for Atiku’s opponent, President Muhammadu Buhari, in the presidential
election.
In the suit, a copy of which was
obtained by TheCable, the group said Atiku, who is presidential candidate of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is not a citizen of Nigeria by birth and as
such not fit to contest in election.
Ajulo is also the lead counsel in
the application filed on Tuesday.
Joined as second, third and
fourth defendants are the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) and Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation respectively.
The group argued that when Atiku
was born November 25, 1946, “Jada village and other parts of Chamba land in the
then Northern Cameroon were still known as British Cameroons.”
They said “none of the 1st
defendant’s parents or grandparents was born in Nigeria” and that Atiku’s
father “died a citizen of Northern Cameroon in 1957 prior the referendum of
June 1, 1961 that made Northern Cameroon became part of Nigeria.”
They asked the court to determine
whether section 25 of the 1999 constitution is “the sole authority that spells
out ways by which a person can become a Nigerian citizen by birth” and whether
by the provisions of section 131(a) of the constitution, “only a Nigeria
citizen by birth can contest for the office of the President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria”.
Among the prayers sought before
the court by the group include: “A declaration that by the provisions of
Section 131(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as
amended), only a Nigerian citizen by birth can contest for the office of the
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“A declaration that by the
combined interpretation of Sections 25(1) & (2) and 131(a) of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and giving
the circumstances surrounding the birth of the 1st Defendant, he cannot be
cleared by the 2nd and 3rd Defendants to contest for the office of the
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
No date has been fixed for
hearing of the application filed just five days to the presidential election.
There was a rash of law suits
against Buhari before the 2015 elections, one alleging that he presented a
forged secondary school certificate.
But none was determined before
the elections.
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