“Atiku Is A Cameroonian, Not Qualified To Be Nigeria’s President” – APC Tells Tribunal

The ruling All Progressives Congress has challenged the citizenship of a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last presidential election, saying Atiku is a Cameroonian who is not qualified to be Nigeria’s President.

The APC logged the attack in its response to a petition by the PDP, seeking to invalidate the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC who was returned elected.

In the petition it filed before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, the ruling party maintained that Atiku is not a Nigerian and was therefore not qualified to contest the February 23 presidential poll or to challenge the declaration of President Buhari as the winner.

In this regard, APC, asked the tribunal which is conducting its proceedings at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, to dismiss Atiku’s petition against Buhari for being grossly incompetent, insisting that he is a Cameroonian.

Besides, APC, through its lawyer, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, asked the tribunal to invoke its powers to void and declare the 11.1million votes that were recorded in favour of Atiku and the PDP as wasted votes. According to APC, Atiku, was born on November 25, 1946 in Jada, Adamawa, in Northern Cameroon and is therefore a citizen of Cameroon and not a Nigerian by birth.

End of Bouteflika’s era in Algeria It told the tribunal that prior to 1919, Cameroon was being administered by Germany, adding that following the defeat of Germany in World War 1, which ended in 1918, Cameroon, became part of a League of Nations mandate territory which consisted of French Cameroon and British Cameroon in 1919.

APC noted that in 1961, a plebiscite was held in British Cameroon to determine whether the people preferred to stay in Cameroon or align with Nigeria. It stressed that while Northern Cameroon preferred a union with Nigeria, the Southern Cameroon chose alignment with the mother country, saying it was as a result of the plebiscite that Northern Cameroon, which included Adamawa, became part of Nigeria.

Atiku and PDP had in their joint  petition marked CA/PEPC/002/2019, prayed the tribunal to  invalidate the declaration of President Buhari as winner of the presidential contest. Aside INEC, President Buhari and the APC were cited as Respondents in the petition.