A former Senior Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, has said that the current President, Muhammadu Buhari is not a valid Presidential candidate.
Okupe was responding to journalists who asked what Buhari’s chances were for the coming elections.
The former aide was critical of Buhari’s refusal to sign the Electoral act.
“Actions and activities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are being dictated directly from the villa. If that is not the case, by now if the INEC Chairman was a truly independent person, he ought to have conveyed message to APC and the villa that they do not have a candidate for the 2019 presidential election,” Okupe said
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He continued: “As of today, the nomination of President Buhari is not valid. To be nominated for an election, there are some conditions that must be met as provided by the Constitution and the Electoral Act. Number one, you must be a Nigerian. Now, there are issues that were even confirmed by the President himself in Poland that there is doubt about his nationality, whether he is a Nigerian or a Sudanese.”
Okupe also took a swipe at Buhari’s less than satisfactory WAEC result situation
“As of today, the form submitted by Buhari to INEC does not contain a certificate. What he submitted is an affidavit with a false claim that his certificate is with the Army, who had sometime issued a statement that they are not in possession of any certificate of the president,” he said
Okupe said: “Buhari is not a candidate for 2019 presidential election and the facts speak for themselves. By the action of Buhari to have gone to WAEC for an attestation showed that he knew that his certificate was never with the military and he swore to an oath falsely. That itself is ground for disqualification of nomination of any candidate. This is the truth and Nigerians needs to be aware of it, so that nobody creates crisis in 2019. Head or tail, Atiku will be President of Nigeria in 2019,”