An Abuja-based lawyer, Johnmary Jideobi, has asked the Abuja Federal High Court to disqualify atik abubakar to compete for the presidential elections of 2023.
In the new suit, Abubakar, who emerged as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate last Saturday, has one more legal hurdle to cross in his run for Nigeria’s presidency.
But in February this year, a federal judge, Inyang Ekwo, dismissed a similar case challenging Abubakar’s Nigerian citizenship.
Mr. Ekwo warned the plaintiff, incorporated trustees of the Equality Mission for Africa, a non-governmental organization, to desist from filing frivolous lawsuits intended to harass politically exposed Nigerians.
The judge held that the incorporated trustees lacked the right to bring legal action, calling them a “busy body and meddlesome intruders.”
The Nigerian Supreme Court also dismissed a similar request from APC in 2019 after the 2019 presidential election.
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In the new lawsuit, the plaintiff challenges Abubakar’s Nigerian citizenship, despite having been Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007.
According to court documents, Mr. Jideobi named Mr. Abubakar, the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) as defendants.
He argued that Mr. Abubakar is not constitutionally qualified to participate in the presidential elections. He stated that Mr. Abubakar is not a Nigerian citizen by birth as required by the Nigerian constitution.
Mr. Jideobi contends that Mr. Abubakar “acquired his Nigerian citizenship by virtue of the 1961 plebiscite that integrated some people from northern Cameroon into Nigeria as new Nigerian citizens.
The plaintiff claimed that, “Allowing the first defendant (Mr. Abubakar) to participate in the 2023 presidential election as a candidate” of the PDP would amount to a gross desecration of the sacrosanct and inviolable provisions of Sections 1 (1) and (2) , 25 and 131(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
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“The third defendant (INEC) has an inescapable duty to ensure that the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not governed, nor that any person or group of persons take control of the government of Nigeria or any part thereof, except in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.”
Prayers
Mr. Jideobi asks the court for a “declaration that, under Sections 1(1) and (2), 25 and 131(a) of the Constitution, only a Nigerian citizen by birth is constitutionally eligible to compete for the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
In addition, it seeks a “declaration that, given the circumstances of the birth of the first defendant (Atiku), he is not constitutionally qualified to stand for election to the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The plaintiff is seeking a “court order disqualifying the first defendant, Atiku Abubakar, from standing for election for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He also begged the court to declare that the “PDP has no candidate for the office of president in the 2023 presidential election to be organized by the third defendant.”
He requested “a life term order preventing the first accused from competing for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or holding the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by any means and for the duration of his life.
“A life injunction order preventing the second defendant from presenting or presenting the first defendant as his candidate for the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“A life injunction order preventing the third defendant from accepting or publishing the name of the first defendant as the second defendant’s candidate for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the upcoming 2023 presidential election.”
This demand comes a couple of days after Abubakar became the standard-bearer for Nigeria’s main opposition party, the PDP, in a primary election held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
Meanwhile, no date has been set for the hearing of the case.
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