The political temperature of the nation rose a couple of notches higher, after the All Progressive Congress (APC) told the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Feb. 23 presidential poll, Atiku Abubakar, was a Cameroonian and not a Nigerian citizen. Based on that allegation, Atiku was not qualified to have contested the presidential election; therefore, his petition against President Muhammadu Buhari should be dismissed for lack of merit. Atiku and the PDP had petitioned the election tribunal to declare him as the lawful winner of the presidential election, but in response, the APC said that the 11.1 million votes recorded in favor of Atiku and the PDP should be voided and considered as wasted votes.
The dramatic escalation of tension between the two major parties comes a day after the opposition PDP, in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it “rejects in its entirety the declaration by the Buhari presidency that Atiku Abubakar is lucky to be walking free,” noting that such reckless public pronouncements was inciting and “brings to the fore the unwholesome intention of the APC-led administration against Atiku for seeking to retrieve his stolen mandate at the courts.” Also, quoting what he said were “authoritative sources” in Aso Villa, a member of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) and former APC deputy national publicity secretary, Timi Frank, alleged a sinister plot to arrest Atiku on arrival from his vacation abroad and jail him for alleged treason.
The PDP allegations came after the Federal Government issued a stern warning to Atiku to “henceforth, stop overheating the polity and quit trying to instigate a political crisis in Nigeria as he goes about fighting to claim his mandate to be determined by the courts.” The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, gave the warning yesterday while briefing journalists on the latest development surrounding Atiku’s statement on posters with the inscriptions, “The Pukka: HE Atiku Abubakar, The Real and the Right” which festooned across major streets in Abuja and Yola; capital city of Atiku’s home state of Adamawa. Atiku, it should be noted, has dissociated himself from the group responsible for the posters, but Mohammed stressed that the Wazirin Adamawa “cannot win by subterfuge what he lost at the polls” but admitted that Atiku’s moves were yet to be termed “treasonable” until further notice.
He warned that the former vice president to stop creating the impression that he has lost confidence in the judicial process, and was thus admonishing his supporters to “resort to self-help.”
He said: “As you must have noticed in recent times, posters bearing the picture of former vice president and the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, with the inscription: The Pukka, HE Atiku Abubakar, The Real and the Right, have surfaced across major streets in Abuja; the appearance of these posters coincides with media reports that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has hired a US lobbying firm to convince the United States not to recognize the re-election of President Buhari until the Supreme Court has ruled on the suit by the PDP presidential candidate.” In Mohammed’s view, this was indicative that the only decision that would be acceptable to Atiku; is if the election tribunal rule in his favor.
Atiku had in his petition to the tribunal, faulted the conduct of the Feb. 23 Presidential Election on grounds of non-compliance with relevant electoral laws and other malpractices such as rigging, non-use of card readers, voter intimidation and outright fraud in states where the total number of votes were more than the number of accredited voters. The former Vice President claimed to have scored the majority of the lawful votes in the election and prayed the tribunal to declare him as winner of the election. In the alternative, he prayed for an order for the cancellation of the election and another order by the tribunal directing INEC to conduct a fresh election that would conform to the relevant laws.
No date has, however, been fixed for hearing of the petition, but the APC’s reply, filed by its lead counsel, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) faulted the candidacy of Atiku in the election. The APC averred that Atiku was born on Nov. 25, 1946 in Jada, Adamawa, in Northern Cameroon and was therefore a citizen of Cameroon and not a Nigerian by birth. As if oblivious to the fact that Atiku had been voted and served as vice-president for eight years under President Olusegun Obasanjo; and also ignoring the fact that present day Adamawa State was part of British Northern Cameroon that voted in a UN plebiscite in 1961 to join the Nigerian federation and has been; and remains an integral part of the Nigerian federation the APC claimed, contrary to the assertion of Atiku in his petition, he has no right to be voted for as a candidate in the election to the office of president of Nigeria.
Apart from the issue of the origin of Atiku, the APC asserted that most of the claims contained in Atiku’s petition had become statute barred and that the tribunal was not the appropriate place to entertain such. The APC specifically said that the issue of the educational qualification of Buhari as raised by Atiku could not be treated by the Tribunal. The APC said this was because the period for claims and objections on such issues had expired. The party maintained that Atiku and the PDP failed and neglected to use the appropriate period to challenge the validity of the educational qualifications of Buhari.
