A suit has been filed against the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar at the Federal High Court Abuja, seeking to disqualify him from contesting in the 2023 elections.
Atiku, who was dragged to court by an Abuja-based lawyer, Johnmary Jideobi, is being queried over his Nigerian citizenship.
The former vice president, who served under ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007 had emerged as the presidential candidate of the PDP after polling a total of 371 votes against other contenders.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/751/2022, with defenders including the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Jideobi argued that Atiku is not a Nigerian citizen by birth as required by the constitution.
He maintained that the former Vice President does not qualify to run for the office of the President given that he only “acquired his citizenship of Nigeria by virtue of the 1961 plebiscite which integrated some people of Northern Cameroon into Nigeria as new citizens of Nigeria.”
The plaintiff, asked the court to determine “Whether by the combined provisions of sections 1(1) & (2), 25 and 131(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), only a Nigeria citizen by birth can contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?
He also prayed the court to also determine “Whether by the combined interpretation of sections 1(1) & (2), 25(1) & (2) and 131(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), and giving the circumstances surrounding the birth of the 1st Defendant, he can be cleared by the 2nd and 3rd Defendants to contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?”.
Jideobi further told the court that it would amount to a grave desecration of the otherwise sacrosanct and inviolable provisions of Sections 1(1) & (2), 25, and 131(a) of the Constitution if Atiku is allowed to participate in the 2023 presidential election as the PDP candidate.
He also said that the court must ensure that the INEC shall not allow any person or group of persons to take control of the government of Nigeria or any part thereof except in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
The constitutional lawyer further seeks a “declaration that given the circumstances of the birth of the first defendant (Atiku), he is not constitutionally qualified to stand for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; and an “order of the court disqualifying the first defendant – Atiku Abubakar – from contesting for election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He also begged the court to declare that the “PDP does not have a candidate for the office of the president in the 2023 presidential election to be organised by the third defendant.”
