Suit Challenging Atiku’s Eligibility To Contest For President Adjourned

A suit challenging the citizenship of the former Vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, has been adjourned till December 6, 2021.

Naija News reports that a group, Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa, had filed a suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja challenging Abubakar’s eligibility to contest for president in the 2019 presidential election.

The plaintiff had told the court that considering the provisions of sections 25(1) &(2) and 131(a) of the constitution and the circumstances surrounding his birth, the former vice-president cannot contest for the top office.

Co-defendants in the suit are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN).

In an affidavit to support the suit, Malami had said Abubakar was not a Nigerian citizen by birth and therefore, not eligible to run for president in Nigeria.

The presiding judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, had in July, granted the prayer of the Adamawa state government to be joined in the suit.

At the resumed court session which was scheduled for hearing on Monday, the plaintiff’s counsel, Raphael Oyewole, prayed the court for an extension of time to enable him to serve processes on some of the parties in the suit.

Displeased, the judge subsequently adjourned the matter until December 6 for continuation.