The All Progressives Congress (APC) has claimed that former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, is not a Nigerian by birth.

The ruling APC argued that by virtue of his not being a Nigerian by birth, Atiku was not qualified to have contested the last presidential election.

It accused the PDP of fielding a non-Nigerian as its candidate in the last election and faulted the party’s claim of presenting a candidate for the election.

The APC contended that by Section 131(a) of the Constitution, a person must be a citizen of Nigeria by birth to be qualified to contest for the office of the President of the country.

The ruling party noted that Atiku was born on November 25, 1946, in, Jada, now Adamawa State, then in Northern Cameroon, “and is, therefore, a citizen of Cameroon.”

APC made the argument in its reply to the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and the PDP before the presidential election petition tribunal in Abuja.

The party faulted the competence of the petition and prayed the tribunal to dismiss it for being incompetent.

INEC had, on February 27, 2019, declared the APC alongside its candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, winner of the election with 15,191,847 votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku, whom it said polled 11,262,978 votes.

 

Twitter Reactions: