The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has said the flagbearer for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 presidential poll, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was never fit constitutionally, to run for the presidency.
Atiku also asserts that he has been able to
run for the office of the President of Nigeria since 1993 without any
controversy because he is free from drugs
and identity scandals, unlike the President -Elect, Ahmed Bola Tinubu.
The former Vice President’s comments were
contained in a response to Tinubu’s and APC’s reply regarding his petition
challenging the process and the outcome of the February 25 presidential
election.
“Tinubu is constitutionally disabled from
contesting for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,”
Atiku insisted in a rejoinder to the president-elect’s response in which he
described Atiku as a serial election loser.
Atiku said that Tinubu is a giant in forfeiture,
drug related offences and failure to disclose dual nationality to INEC.
Besides, Atiku noted that his own identity, comprising age, State of Origin and
educational qualifications have never been in dispute unlike those of Tinubu.
The PDP flagbearer alleged that Tinubu is
unfit to lead Nigeria having been indicted for drug related offences in the
United States of America (USA) and made to forfeit a sum of $460,000 as a
compromise agreement.
In the response filed by his lead counsel,
Chief Chris Uche (SAN), the PDP presidential candidate justified why the
declaration of Tinubu as President-elect cannot stand, adding that it is
against the law for Tinubu to hold dual citizenship of Nigeria and Guinea,
having voluntarily acquired the citizenship of the Republic of Guinea.
He also accused Tinubu of not disclosing
facts of his constitutional qualifications in his Form EC9 submitted to the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), contrary to the provisions of
the law.
Justifying his request for the annulment of
the declaration of Tinubu as President-elect, Atiku said that Tinubu and APC
never won majority of the lawful votes cast in the February 25 presidential
election.
Amongst others, the PDP presidential
candidate maintained that Tinubu failed part of the constitutional requirements
having failed to secure 25% of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT), Abuja, as constitutionally required.
He insisted that the return of Tinubu as the
winner of the 2023 presidential election is undue, unlawful and invalid because
Tinubu did not meet the constitutional requirements as to qualification.
Rather than addressing the issues raised
against him and the disputed election, Atiku said that Tinubu deliberately
chose not to answer points of substance in the petition and opted for
contradictory and vague facts.
Reacting to another issue raised against
Atiku’s petition, the former Vice President claimed that his petition did not
in any way constitute a gross abuse of any court process, adding that the
originating summons of February 28, 2023, filed at the Supreme Court by
Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta , Edo, and Sokoto states have since been
discontinued.
He added that parties in the suit of the six
PDP controlled states are not the same in his own petition and therefore prayed
the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to discountenance the objections
and the averments raised against the petition by Tinubu and grant him all the
reliefs sought in the petition.
Channels TV
إرسال تعليق