Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has denied instituting a legal action against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over citizenship.
Malami said this in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, in Abuja on Wednesday.
The statement said Malami, never filed any case before any court in Nigeria challenging the citizenship of Atiku.
There are reports on Tuesday that Malami told a Federal High Court in Abuja, that Atiku is not eligible to contest for president because “he is not a Nigerian by birth.”
The news report has said an affidavit was filed in 2019 by the Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa (EMA) against the PDP and Atiku, challenging Atiku’s eligibility to contest for president.
The report quoted provisions of sections 25(1) & (2) and 131(a) of the constitution and the circumstances surrounding his birth, to buttress that the former vice-president cannot contest for the apex office.
Gwandu said the said suit in contention was part of the 2019 pre-election matters instituted by a civil society organization – the Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa in suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/177/2019 in Atiku the, PDP, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation were made co-defendants Malami regretted that stale news stories capable of causing confusion are repackaged and presented to the general public as current news.
