February 21, (THEWILL) – Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed a suit challenging the Nigerian citizenship of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Delivering judgment, the court dismissed the suit on the grounds that the plaintiff that instituted the case lacked the locus standi (legal right) to do so.
Justice Ekwo described the plaintiff as a “busy body and meddlesome interloper.”
The court cautioned the plaintiff to refrain from filing frivolous applications targeted at harassing politically exposed Nigerians.
A group, the Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa (EMA), had in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/177/2019 sued Atiku, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney-General of the Federation as 1st to 4th respondents respectively in the suit.
EMA had asked the court to disqualify Atiku as the presidential candidate of the PDP and to restrain him from contesting the February 16, 2019, presidential election over alleged circumstances surrounding his citizenship.
Specifically, the plaintiff had approached the court for an interpretation of Sections 25(1) & (2) and 131(a) of the 1999 constitution.
By the suit, the plaintiff prayed for “A declaration that by the combined interpretation of Sections 25(l) & (2) and 131(a) of the Constitution and given the circumstances surrounding Atiku’s birth, he cannot be cleared by PDP and INEC to contest for the post of president.”
THEWILL recalls that the Adamawa state government, through its Attorney-General (AG), had on July 27, 2021, sought an order of the court to be joined in the suit.
The court, in the motion dated April 26 and filed June 24, granted the prayer of the AG of Adamawa to be joined in the case as the 5th defendant.
The Adamawa government had told the court that Atiku was eligible to vie for the office of the president.
It said Atiku, against whom the suit was primarily directed, is a citizen of Nigeria from Adamawa who had been elected as a governor of the state in 1999 and served as the vice president of the country between 1999 to 2007.
It stated that the suit threatened the right of not just the ex vice president to contest the office of the president “but that of the citizens of Nigeria, of Adamawa origin covering 12 out of the 21 Local Government Areas in the state.”
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