The legal representative of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, Chris Uche SAN, has presented arguments asserting that President Bola Tinubu’s alleged criminal conviction and dual citizenship should disqualify him from office, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

During proceedings at the Presidential Election Petitions Court in Abuja, Tinubu’s legal team, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, did not deny or concede the claim of dual citizenship.

However, they contended that even if Tinubu held dual citizenship, it would not prevent him from running for the presidency, citing the Constitution….CONTINUE READING

Atiku’s counsel maintained that the Constitution (Section 137(1)(a)) prohibits the President of Nigeria from declaring allegiance to another country, and thus, Tinubu’s alleged acquisition of Guinean citizenship would render him ineligible.

Additionally, Chris Uche raised concerns about INEC’s claim that technical glitches prevented real-time transmission of presidential election results.

Uche pointed to the testimony of INEC’s witness, Lawrence Bayode, who stated that the commission did not report the glitches to the service providers or manufacturers.

Uche argued that this admission demonstrated the unreality of the “technical glitch” explanation.

Furthermore, Uche criticized INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood, for announcing a winner without resolving issues related to the Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the Integrated Results Electronic Voting (IREV) system, which were central to the 2023 presidential election under the Electoral Act 2022.