Atiku Abubakar Tells Tribunal To Disqualify ‘President-Elect’ Tinubu On Account Of Guinean Citizenship

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has said that Bola Tinubu, Nigerian “president-elect”, ought not to have contested the election owing to his dual citizenship of Nigeria and Guinea. Atiku made the claim in his response to Tinubu’s preliminary objection filed before the presidential election petition court in Abuja. Shortly after Tinubu was declared the president-elect, there were reports that he allegedly obtained citizenship of Guinea.

The allegation generated varied reactions on social media, with many arguing that having dual citizenship bars Tinubu from contesting elections in the country. Tinubu’s relationship with Alpha Conde, the former president of Guinea, has also come under scrutiny. It was also reported that Ousmane Yara, a Guinean ambassador to African Union (AU) for Agenda 2063, said Tinubu was recognised by Conde as a special convoy.

The PDP standard bearer also accused the president-elect of not disclosing facts of his constitutional qualifications in his Form EC9 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). According to reports, in the response filed by his lead counsel, Chris Uche, Atiku said Tinubu has demonstrated inconsistency as to his actual date of birth, secondary schools he attended (Government College Ibadan); his state of origin, gender, actual name; certificates evidencing universities attended (Chicago State University).

He further averred that Tinubu is unfit to govern the country having been indicted for drug-related offences in the United States and made to forfeit a sum of $460,000 as a compromise agreement. Atiku said Tinubu failed to secure 25 percent of the votes cast in the federal capital territory (FCT) as constitutionally required. He argued that the return of Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election was undue, unlawful and invalid because he did not meet the constitutional requirements.