The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has said that former Vice President,Atiku Abubakar is not fit to run for office of president under the constitutiion.
Malami who made the argument in support of a suit before the Federal High Court, Abubakar said that Atiku would be violating Section 118(1) (k) of the Electoral Act if he chose to contest as he was not a Nigerian citizen by birth or born by Nigerian parents .
The suit filed by the Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa ( EMA) is challenging Atiku,’s eligibility to context for President and praying the Court to hold that in view of provisions of Sections 25(1)&(2) and 131(a) of the constitution and the circumstances surrounding his birth, Atiku cannot contest for president.
The suit was filed for the AGF before the 2019 presidential election by a team of lawyers led by Oladipo Okpeseyi (SAN). but it is yet to be heard.
It was however, mentioned on March 15 before Justice Inyang Ekwo who noted that the suit was ripe for hearing and fixed May 5 to hear the case.
Part of the argument was that the former vice president having been born on the 25th of November,1946, at Jada in Northern Cameroon before the 1961 plebiscite which incorporated the town of Jada into Nigeria, made him unfit to hold the No 1 office as he is not a Nigerian by birth.
It noted that all those born before the 1961plebiscite qualified as citizens of Nigeria but not Nigerian citizens by birth adding that only those born before the 1961 plesbicite are citizens of Nigeria by birth.
” This is more so when his parents do not belong to any tribe indigenous to Nigeria until their death. The facts of his ( Atiku’s ) birth on the Cameroonian territory to Cameroonian parents remain unchallenged”.
The AGF noted that the way Atiku could have acquired Nigerian citizenship by birth under the 1999 constitutiion was if both or either of his parents and grandparents were Nigerian citizens by birth.
Another way would have been if either of his parents had become Nigerian citizen by virtue of Section 25(1) of the 1999 Constitutiion which must be in compliance with Sections 26 and 27 of the same constitutiion.
Atiku and the Peoples Democratic Party PDP on whose platform he contested the 2019 election prayed the court to dismiss the suit for lacking in merit.
Atiku stated that both his parents, grandparents and great grandparents were born in Nigeria and they lived,died as Nigerians and were buried in Nigeria.
He argued that as a bonafide citizen of Nigeria, he is eligible to be elected into the office of the president of Nigeria adding that the plaintiff filed the suit in bad faith and in an attempt to malign his person and integrity.
