The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has come out to say that he wasn’t the one that approached the court to query the citizenship of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.

He recently revealed this via a statement made available through his Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Dr Umar Jibrilu Gwandu.

According to him, he never insinuated legal action on the citizenship or otherwise of the former VP, and the affidavit he filed before the court was in response to a 2019 pre-election suit that was filed by a Civil Society Organization – the Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa.

He added that it is unfortunate that stale news stories capable of causing confusion are repackaged and presented to the general public as current news.

His words, “The matter 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 respect of which Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation was made a co-defendant.”

“The issue had already been widely reported by the media since April 2019.”

“It is unfortunate that stale news stories capable of causing confusion are repackaged and presented to the general public as current news.”

“The first defendant is a Nigerian by virtue of the 1961 plebiscite, but not a Nigerian by birth. The first defendant’s parents died before the 1961 plebiscite.”

“This qualified all those born before the 1961 plebiscIte as citizens of Nigeria, but not Nigerian citizen by birth. Consequently, only citizens born after the 1961 plebiscite are citizens of Nigeria by birth.”