Atiku Abubakar, the 2019 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reacted to claims by the All Progressive Congress (APC) that he’s not a Nigerian.
The APC made the claim while filing it’s response to the petition of Mr Abubakar who had sought legal redress over the conduct of the presidential election which produced President Muhammadu Buhari as the winner.
The former vice president popularly known as Atiku had prayed for the presidential election tribunal to declared him winner of the February 23 exercise on the basis and resuscitation of the allegation that Mr Buhari was not qualified to run for the office of the President on the grounds that he did not possess the constitutional minimum qualification of a school certificate.
Responding the APC said it was Atiku who was not qualified for the position alleging the former vice president is from Cameroon.
In a statement on Saturday by his Special Adviser on Media, Paul Ibe, the PDP candidate said the claim by the APC is an attempt to unconstitutional redefine the term ‘Nigerian.’
“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,” Mr Ibe said.
“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 God, he was the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“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,” he added.
