I was born by Nigerian parents, says Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general election, has debunked notions that he was Cameroonian by birth and thus not qualified to contest the February 23, 2019 election.

Atiku, who was born in Jada in 1946, in present Adamawa State, said he was born by Nigerian parents from Sokoto and Jigawa states, and therefore “a citizen of Nigeria by birth”. He was responding to allegation’s by the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the presidential election tribunal that he is a Cameroonian citizen.Atiku said his father, Garba Atiku Abdulkadir, hailed from Wurmo in the present day Sokoto State, while the mother, Aisha Kande, hailed from Dutse in present day Jigawa State.

“The parents of the first petitioner (Atiku) are both Fulani, a community/tribe indigenous to Nigeria,” his lawyers, an array of senior advocates, said.“The birth of the first petitioner in Jada, in present day Adamawa State of Nigeria, was occasioned by the movement of his paternal grandfather called Atiku, who was an itinerant trader, from Wurmo in present day Sokoto State, to Jada in the company of his friend, Ardo Usman.

“In Jada, Atiku, the grandfather of the first petitioner gave birth to Garba, who in tum gave birth to the first petitioner and named him after his own father, Atiku.“The first petitioner’s mother, Aisha Kande, was the grand daughter of Inuwa Dutse who came to Jada as an itinerant trader too from Dutse in present day Jigawa State.”Atiku’s counsel insisted that all averments concerning Germany, British Cameroons, League of Nations and Plebiscite were false and misleading in relation to the first petitioner and therefore completely irrelevant, “more so that the first petitioner is a Nigerian by birth within the contemplation of the constitution.”