Abba Kyari

The Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari on Tuesday told the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 23 general election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is a Cameroonian in flesh and blood.

Led in his deposition by the counsel for Buhari, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Kyari insisted that Jada, Atiku’s hometown was in Adamawa Province, an enclave which belonged to Northern Cameroon in 1946 when the former Vice President was born.

He explained that Atiku was already born before the plebiscite was conducted in 1961 and Jada, which was part of Northern Cameroon voted with other communities in that region to become a territory of Nigeria.

The Chief of Staff further disclosed that the plebiscite also resulted in the Southern part of Cameroon officially aligning to become Cameroonian territory.

He therefore maintained that the French system of assimilation had compelled the people of Jada, including Abubakar’s father and grandfather to be full Cameroonians in both flesh and blood.

Recall that President Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) had urged the tribunal to dismiss PDP’s petition against them arguing that the party fielded a non-Nigerian to contest the presidential election. They further argued that Atiku being ‘a non- Nigerian’ cannot sue the party over an election conducted by Nigerians.

They submitted that the Constitution had foreclosed the participation of non-Nigerians in the country’s election, arguing that it did not matter if the provision was not tested when Atiku was selected to be the country’s Vice President.