22nd April, 2019
The People’s Democratic Party’s candidate in the 2019 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has rebuffed the All Progressives Congress allegation that he is a Cameroonian and not eligible to vote or be voted for in Nigeria.
Atiku disclosed this in a response to the APC’s reply to the petition he and his party jointly filed before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.
According to the All Progressives Congress, Atiku was born on November 25, 1946 in Jada, Adamawa state, which was then in Northern Cameroon; hence, Atiku is a Cameroonian.
However, Atiku has insisted that he is a Nigerian, adding that his parents were also Nigerians by birth.
Atiku and the PDP said: “Contrary to the allegations contained in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the 3rd respondent’s (APC’s) reply, the petitioners state that the 1st petitioner (Atiku) is a citizen of Nigeria by birth and thus qualified to vote and be voted for and returned in the election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, held on Saturday February 23, 2019 going by the relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
“The parents of the 1st Petitioner(Atiku) are both Fulani, a community/tribe indigenous to Nigeria”, his lawyers said.
“The birth of the 1st Petitioner in Jada, in present day Adamawa State of Nigeria was occasioned by the movement of his paternal grandfather called Atiku who was an itinerant trader, from Wurmo in present day Sokoto State to Jada in the company of his friend, Ardo Usman.
“That in Jada, Atiku, the grandfather of the 1st Petitioner gave birth to Garba who in tum gave birth to the 1st Petitioner and named him after his own father Atiku.
“The 1st Petitioner’s mother, Aisha Kande was the grand-daughter of Inuwa Dutse who came to Jada as an itinerant trader too from Dutse in present day Jigawa State.
“All averments concerning Germany, British Cameroons, League of Nations and Plebiscite are false and misleading in relation to the 1st Petitioner and therefore completely irrelevant more so that the 1st Petitioner is a Nigerian by birth within the contemplation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
“The averments in the aforesaid paragraphs are indeed fabricated, contrived, made in bad faith and designed to embarrass the 1st Petitioner.”