Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2019 polls, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to disprove his “factual” submission that the February 23 presidential election was fraught with irregularities.
Atiku, in a statement by his media aide, Paul Ibe, yesterday, said the fact that the APC chose to base its defence at the Election Petition Tribunal on the claim that Atiku is not a Nigerian is an admission that they trampled on the will of the people during the presidential poll, adding that the tribunal would treat the citizenship claim with the contempt “it deserves”.
The statement read in part: “His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar told us previously that he has verifiable and incontrovertible evidence to show that the last presidential election was fraudulent, not credible and did not reflect the will of the Nigerian people, and he has been vindicated by the response of the All Progressives Congress and its candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, to his petition to the Electoral Tribunal hearing the petition he filed.
“The former Vice President based his case on facts and statistical evidence and challenged both the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the APC to disprove his factual submissions.
“The fact that the APC chose to base its defence on the ridiculous assertion that the Waziri Adamawa is not a Nigerian should show to Nigerians the type of characters we have in the APC and its government, whose legitimacy runs out on May 29, 2019.
“The position of the APC is so pedestrian and shows such straw clutching desperation on their part, that I shall not dignify it with an answer. Our lawyers would, of course, do the needful in court. But the point I want to draw the attention of Nigerians to is that both the APC and its candidate have by this infantile logic admitted to the fact that they trampled on the will of Nigerians and that their only defence is to attempt an unconstitutional redefinition of the term ‘Nigerian’.
“I am, however, confident in the Nigerian judiciary, as well as in the Nigerian people. I trust that the Tribunal will treat such a claim with the contempt it deserves.”