Doyin Okupe, former Senior Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, has declared that the All Progressives Congress (APC) does not have a presidential candidate for the 2019 general election.
He stated this while responding to questions from journalists on the chances of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and APC in the forthcoming election.
He also lamented the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Electoral Act that has since been passed by the National Assembly.
“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,” he said.
“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 added that evidence must be provided that the candidate had been educated to secondary school level.
“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,” Okupe stated.
According to Okupe, that by itself was perjury. “If I falsely swear to an oath that I am seven feet tall and measurement shows I am not that tall, I have simply committed perjury,” he said.
He said such an invalidly nominated candidate had lost an election even before it is conducted, adding that it was incumbent on APC to either go to court or find another candidate.
“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,” Okupe said.
