2023 Presidency: Fresh Suit Seeks To Disqualify Atiku

A constitutional lawyer, Johnmary Jideobi, on Tuesday, approached the Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja, to challenge the eligibility of former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to contest the 2023 presidential election, POLITICS NIGERIA reports.

The complainant, in the suit stated that Atiku, who is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is not constitutionally qualified to participate in the contest.

Jideobi told the court to determine: “Whether by the combined provisions of sections 1(1) & (2), 25 and 131(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), only a Nigeria citizen by birth can contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?”

Some persons often claim Atiku is a Cameroonian, not a Nigerian.

It is not the first time a suit will be seeking to challenge Atiku’s eligibility for presidency.

About three months ago, an Abuja division of the FHC dismissed a suit seeking to challenge the eligibility of the former Vice President to contest for the office of the president.

Justice Inyang Ekwo dismissed the suit on the grounds that the plaintiff that instituted the case lacked the legal right to do so.

A group called the Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa (EMA) had instituted a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/177/2019 against Atiku, PDP, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami