Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, claims that he has been able to compete for the presidency of Nigeria since 1993 without encountering any problems since, in contrast to Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, he has never been involved in a drug or identity scandal.
The former vice president responded to Tinubu’s statement that Atiku has lost elections repeatedly by saying that Tinubu is a giant when it comes to forfeiture, drug-related charges, and failing to disclose dual nationality to INEC.
These were included in Atiku’s answer to Tinubu’s and the APC’s response to his petition contesting the conduct and results of the February 25 presidential election.
Read Also: Tinubu: Appeal Court Receives Fresh Suit Seeking To Stop Inauguration
In addition, Atiku claimed that unlike Tinubu, his identity, including his age, state of origin, and educational background, has never been questioned.
In his response to Tinubu’s reply to his petition, Atiku insisted that Tinubu is constitutionally disabled from contesting for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Given that Tinubu was charged with drug-related crimes in the USA and forced to forfeit $460,000 as part of a compromise arrangement, Atiku claimed Tinubu is unsuitable to rule Nigeria.
The PDP presidential candidate explained why Tinubu’s declaration as the next president cannot stand in the response submitted by his lead attorney, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), and added that it is against the law for Tinubu to hold dual citizenship of Nigeria and Guinea because he voluntarily acquired the citizenship of the Republic of Guinea.
Additionally, he charged Tinubu with breaking the law by failing to disclose information about his constitutional credentials in his Form EC9 submission to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Justifying his request for the annulment of the declaration of Tinubu as President-elect, Atiku said that Tinubu and APC never won the 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.
