The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has claimed he is nothing like the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, whose candidacy is embroiled in controversies.
Tinubu was announced as the winner of the
February 25 presidential election with 8,794,726 votes.
Abubakar polled 6,984,520 votes while Peter
Obi of the Labour Party (LP), came third with 6,101,533 votes.
However, the PDP candidate is challenging
Tinubu’s victory at the tribunal.
In the petition marked CA/PEPC/05/2023, Atiku
and the PDP raised several claims including the allegation that Tinubu was not
qualified to contest the election.
In a preliminary objection opposing the
petition, Tinubu described the former vice president as a serial loser who has
“been consistently contesting and losing successive presidential elections in
Nigeria since 1993, whether at the party primary election level or at the
general election”.
While responding to Tinubu, Abubakar admitted
that he has been contesting presidential elections since 1993, but he has “a
drug-free record”.
“The 1st petitioner, unlike the 2nd
respondent (Tinubu), has consistently been contesting presidential elections,
given the 1st petitioner’s drug-free record, and has never had controversy
surrounding his age, circumstances of his birth, state of origin, gender,
educational qualification, health status, working career, and citizenship, all
issues bordering on constitutional qualification to contest for the office of
the president of the federal republic of Nigeria,” Abubakar said.
He said the president-elect has “demonstrated
inconsistency as to his actual date of birth, secondary schools he attended
(Government College Ibadan); his state of origin, gender, actual name;
certificates evidencing universities attended (Chicago State University).”
“The purported degree certificate of the 2nd
respondent allegedly acquired at the Chicago State University did not belong to
him but to a female (F) described as “F” in the certificate bearing the name
Bola Tinubu.
“The 2nd respondent did not disclose to the
1st respondent (INEC) his voluntary acquisition of the citizenship of the
Republic of Guinea with Guinean Passport No. D00001551, in addition to his
Nigerian citizenship. The 2nd respondent is hereby given the notice to produce
the original copies of his said two passports.”
The PDP candidate added that Tinubu, “has a
record of criminal forfeiture of the sum of $460, 000 for the drug-related
offence before the United States judge, John A Nordberg, in the 2nd
respondent’s First Heritage Account No. 263226700, being proceeds of
narcotics-trafficking in violation of 18 U. S. C 1956 and 1947 for an offence
involving narcotics”.
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