Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential candidate for the 2019 polls, Atiku Abubakar, has reacted to the claim by the All Progressives Congress (APC) the he is not a Nigerian citizen.
NEWSWATCH.NG reports that the APC filed a motion at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja saying Atiku has no right to challenge the result of the 2019 presidential election as he was not a Nigerian.
The APC said Atiku’s case lacked merit as he was a Cameroonian and therefore has no right to stand for election.
While speaking to the Sun, Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe, said on Friday, April 12, that it is an insult to Nigerians and the office of Vice President, which he (Atiku) occupied for eight years, for the APC to allege that he is not a Nigerian.
His words: “That is idiotic. It is idiotic. And it is ridiculous. Atiku Abubakar is a former vice president of Nigeria.
“Are they telling us that a former vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not a Nigerian?
” That is disrespectful to Nigerians and for the office he has held, which other people will hold and will continue to hold.
“Everything must not be on the alter of politics.”
It should be noted that Atiku’s citizenship has always under scrutiny and debate.
Few months to the 2019 presidential election, the Egalitarian Mission for Africa had asked the Abuja Federal High Court to disqualify Atiku from contesting.
The group in a suit alleged that the PDP’s presidential candidate is not a citizen of Nigeria by birth and as such not fit to contest in the election. The group argued that when Atiku was born on November 25, 1946, Jada village and other parts of Chamba land in the then Northern Cameroon were still known as British Cameroons.