The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has advanced reasons why Asiwaju Bola Tinubu should not have been declared as the President-elect of Nigeria.
OsunDaily News reports Tinubu who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared as the winner of the February 25 presidential election in Nigeria by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, Tinubu’s victory is been challenged in court by Atiku.
According to a response to Tinubu’s preliminary objection filed before the presidential election petition court in Abuja, Atiku claims among other things that the dual citizenship possed by Tinubu disqualifies him from contesting the presidential election.
Recall that Tinubu’s reported citizenship of Guinea which surfaced after the election has been a trending topic on both social and conventional media.
A Guinean ambassador to African Union (AU) for Agenda 2063, Ousmane Yara later clarified that the former president of Guinea, Alpha Conde recognized Tinubu as a special envoy.
Notwithstanding, Atiku in the response filed by his lawyer, Chris Uche maintained that Tinubu’s declaration as the winner of the 2023 presidential election was “undue, unlawful and invalid” because he did not meet the constitutional requirements.
The PDP flag bearer further argued that Tinubu didn’t disclose facts of his constitutional qualifications in his Form EC9 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The former Vice President said Tinubu 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)”.
Other grounds claimed by Atiku in his claim is that Tinubu is unfit to govern the country having been indicted for drug-related offences in the United States and made to forfeit a sum of $460,000 as a compromise agreement.
The PDP candidate also asked for Tinubu’s disqualification for failing to secure 25 percent of the votes cast in the federal capital territory (FCT) which he claims is a constitutional requirement.
