Tribunal dismisses Atiku’s dual citizenship petition against Tinubu
The presidential election petition tribunal on Wednesday struck out the suit by Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), intending to disqualify President Bola Tinubu on the basis of dual citizenship.
According to the tribunal, the information in Atiku’s reply was an attempt to inject fresh evidence to make up for the details his legal team did not provide initially while filing the petition.
#PEPTVerdict: Watch the moment the Presidential Election Petitions Court affirmed Bola Tinubu as Nigeria's duly elected president.#GbaramatuVoice #Nigeria #Tinubu #NigeriaNews #PeterObi #nigeria #Atiku #PresidentialTribunal #Tribunal pic.twitter.com/jGVFpk8vbu
— GbaramatuVoice | Voice of the Niger Delta (@gbaramatuvoice) September 7, 2023
The court also ruled that Atiku’s claim of non-qualification stated in the main petition was not clear.
“It was in their response to the respondents’ reply that they tried to smuggle in the issue of double citizenship,” the panel said.
GbaramatuVoice recalls that Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) have asked the tribunal to challenge Tinubu’s victory in the presidential election.
The former vice-president had informed the tribunal that Tinubu shouldn’t have contested the election because of his dual citizenship of Nigeria and Guinea.
It could be recalled that a few months after Tinubu was declared the president-elect, there were reports that he allegedly obtained citizenship of Guinea.
This development sparked social media reactions as many argued that having dual citizenship prevented Tinubu from contesting elections in the country.
