Tinubu holds twin citizenship of Nigeria, Guinea, Atiku tells courtroom

Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Get together (PDP), had mentioned President-elect Bola Tinubu has twin citizenship of Nigeria and Guinea.

Atiku, in a contemporary courtroom submitting submitted to the Presidential Election Petition Courtroom (PEPC) sitting in Abuja, additionally accused Mr Tinubu of not disclosing information of his constitutional {qualifications} in his Type EC9 submitted to the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC), opposite to the provisions of the regulation.

Within the response filed by his lead counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, Atiku mentioned that his id, comprising age, state of origin and academic {qualifications} had by no means been in dispute.

He insisted that Mr Tinubu was constitutionally disabled from contesting for the workplace of president.

The PDP presidential candidate, amongst different issues, alleged that Tinubu was unfit to steer Nigeria having been indicted for drug associated offences in the US and made to forfeit a sum of 460,000 {dollars} as a compromise settlement.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Atiku mentioned in the identical doc that the president-elect was burdened by id and medicines scandals.

In keeping with him, Mr Tinubu holds twin citizenship of Nigeria and Guinea, having voluntarily acquired the citizenship of the Republic of Guinea.

Reacting to Mr Tinubu’s response by which he described Atiku as a serial election loser, the previous Vice President mentioned that Tinubu was an enormous in forfeiture, drug associated offences and failure to reveal twin nationality to INEC.

“The comparability of the second respondent (Tinubu) with the primary petitioner ( Atiku) who had attained the eminent place of Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for eight years is completely unfounded,” he mentioned.

Atiku mentioned that he was difficult the declaration of Tinubu as president-elect on the grounds that Tinubu and APC didn’t win majority of the lawful votes solid within the Feb. 25 presidential election.

He mentioned that Mr Tinubu failed a part of the constitutional necessities having did not safe 25 per cent of the votes solid within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, as constitutionally required.

He argued that the return of Mr Tinubu because the winner of the 2023 presidential election was undue, illegal and invalid as a result of Tinubu didn’t meet the constitutional necessities.

Atiku mentioned that Tinubu intentionally selected to not reply factors of substance within the petition and opted for extraneous information, contradictory, evasive, speculative and obscure assertions.

A former President of Guinea, Alpha Condé, reportedly confirmed conferring what he described as “Ambassador extraordinaire” on Mr Tinubu.

He mentioned the honour was in compensation for the roles Mr Tinubu performed throughout his election in 2015. It’s not clear if the standing is equated to citizenship of the nation.

Mr Condé, who’s at present in exile in Turkey following a 2021 coup that ousted him, made the feedback after a snapshot bio-data web page of a Guinean passport present Mr Tinubu’s picture and particulars trended on-line.

About the identical time, one other viral video clip, additionally confirmed Mr Tinubu the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the Guinean ambassador to the African Union (AU) for Agenda 2063, Ousmane Yara, in a Guinea-government-owned helicopter.

Mr Yara defined to Solar Newspaper the helicopter video was taken when Mr Tinubu was a visitor of the ousted president of Guinea throughout thr nation’s independence anniversary celebration in 2016.

(NAN)