11th September, 2019
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has sidestepped making a categorical statement about the nationality of former vice-president Atiku Abubakar at birth.
The All Progressives Congress argued before the tribunal that Atiku was not qualified to contest the presidential election as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) because he was not a Nigerian by birth. Atiku was born in Jada, Adamawa state in 1946, at a time when the area was part of Cameroon.
In its 6th ruling on Wednesday, the court said its power does not include determining the qualification of a petitioner in an election dispute.
It said its powers was to determine whether a person elected to the office of the President was validly elected and not to query the qualification of the petitioners to have contested the election, whose outcome was being queried.
The court said the APC ought to have filed a cross-petition if it sought to challenge the qualification of the 1st petitioner (Atiku) to have contested the election.
Justice Garba Mohammed ruled that the application lacks merit as Mr Abubakar met the constitutionally required provisions to be regarded a Nigerian.
The court said the APC should have used the energy spent on attempting to prove Mr Abubakar’s nationality to filing other issues before the tribunal.
*This story has been revised to add everything the Tribunal said.