Citizenship: Buhari, APC’s claim vindicates me on fake election result ― Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that the response of President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressive Congress (APC) to his petition challenging the outcome of the last presidential election has vindicated his position that the result announced does not reflect the will of the Nigerian people.

The APC has in the response to the petition filed by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), claimed that Atiku is not a Nigerian citizen and therefore not qualified to have contested the election.

The ruling party also argued that the votes secured by Atiku in the election are therefore a waste.

But in a reaction to the claim, the former Vice President in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday by Paul Ibe, his media adviser, reiterated that Atiku has verifiable and incontrovertible evidence to show that the last Presidential elections were fraudulent, not credible and did not reflect the will of the Nigerian people.

While noting that Atiku has been vindicated by the response of the APC and Buhari to his petition at the Electoral Tribunal hearing, the statement asserted that the PDP flag bearer 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 statement averred that 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.”

ALSO READ: Osun High Court shocked at bank robbery scenes

It added: “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.

“We must maintain our fidelity to the rule of law and to our fountain of origin, the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended).

“Atiku Abubakar has served our nation diligently in various capacities, form the civil service, where he rose through merit, to the top of his chosen field, to public service, where, by the grace of God, he was the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Moreover, he has committed his assets and talents to develop our nation through the provision of tens of thousands of direct jobs and hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs.

“I make bold to state that those who have made Nigeria the world headquarters for extreme poverty are the very people whose Nigerianness should be in doubt, and not a man, who worked with President Olusegun Obasanjo to double the per capita Income of our nation in less than eight years.”