BY Bolanle Olabimtan
Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says he is nothing like Bola Tinubu, president-elect, whose candidacy is embroiled in controversies.
Tinubu was declared the winner of the February 25 presidential poll with 8,794,726 votes.
Abubakar polled 6,984,520 votes while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), came third with 6,101,533 votes.
However, the PDP candidate is challenging Tinubu’s victory at the tribunal.
In the petition marked CA/PEPC/05/2023, Atiku and the PDP raised several claims including the allegation that Tinubu was not qualified to contest the election.
In a preliminary objection opposing the petition, Tinubu described the former vice president as a serial loser who has “been consistently contesting and losing successive presidential elections in Nigeria since 1993, whether at the party primary election level or at the general election”.
While responding to Tinubu, Abubakar admitted that he has been contesting presidential elections since 1993, but he has “a drug-free record”.
“The 1st petitioner, unlike the 2nd respondent (Tinubu), has consistently been contesting presidential elections, given the 1st petitioner’s drug-free record, and has never had controversy surrounding his age, circumstances of his birth, state of origin, gender, educational qualification, health status, working career, and citizenship, all issues bordering on constitutional qualification to contest for the office of the president of the federal republic of Nigeria,” Abubakar said.
He said the president-elect 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).”
“The purported degree certificate of the 2nd respondent allegedly acquired at the Chicago State University did not belong to him but to a female (F) described as “F” in the certificate bearing the name Bola Tinubu.
“The 2nd respondent did not disclose to the 1st respondent (INEC) his voluntary acquisition of the citizenship of the Republic of Guinea with Guinean Passport No. D00001551, in addition to his Nigerian citizenship. The 2nd respondent is hereby given the notice to produce the original copies of his said two passports.”
The PDP candidate added that Tinubu, “has a record of criminal forfeiture of the sum of $460, 000 for the drug-related offence before the United States judge, John A Nordberg, in the 2nd respondent’s First Heritage Account No. 263226700, being proceeds of narcotics-trafficking in violation of 18 U. S. C 1956 and 1947 for an offence involving narcotics”.
Meanwhile, Abubakar has rejigged his legal team, with Chris Uche taking over from Joe Gadzama, as the lead counsel.
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