Eligibility: Atiku fires back APC, tasks ruling party, Buhari on facts

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during Feburary 23, 2019 election and former vice president Atiku Abubakar has described claim by the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the country he is from as “pedestrian”.

APC on Friday told the presidential election petition tribunal in Abuja through its lead counsel, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, that Atiku was not a Nigerian and faulted his candidacy in the election, insisting that as a Cameroonian, he ought not to have taken part in Nigeria’s presidential election in the first instance.

A statement signed by Atiku’s media adviser, Paul Ibe Saturday said its case at the presidential election petition tribunal was based on facts and statistical evidence and challenged both the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the APC, to disprove his factual submissions.

The statement read: “The fact that the APC chose to base its defence on the ridiculous assertion that the Waziri Adamawa is not a Nigerian should show to Nigerians the type of characters we have in the APC and its government, whose legitimacy runs out on May 29, 2019. 

“The position of the APC is so pedestrian and shows such straw clutching desperation on their part, that I shall not dignify it with an answer. Our lawyers would, of course, do the needful in court. But the point I want to draw the attention of Nigerians to is that both the APC and its candidate have by this infantile logic admitted to the fact that they trampled on the will of Nigerians and that their only defence is to attempt an unconstitutional redefinition of the term ‘Nigerian’.

“I am, however, confident in the Nigerian judiciary, as well as in the Nigerian people. I trust that the Tribunal will treat such a claim with the contempt it deserves. We must maintain our fidelity to the rule of law and to our fountain of origin, the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended).

“Atiku Abubakar has served our nation diligently in various capacities, form the civil service, where he rose through merit, to the top of his chosen field, to public service, where, by the grace of Hod, he was the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Moreover, he has committed his assets and talents to developing our nation through the provision of tens of thousands of direct jobs and hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs.
 

“I make bold to state that those who have made Nigeria the world headquarters for extreme poverty are the very people whose Nigerianness should be in doubt, and not a man, who worked with President Olusegun Obasanjo to double the per capita Income of our nation in less than eight years.”

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