Atiku citizenship: Malami has ambition to be president — he won’t succeed, says group

A group known as the Amalgamated Atiku Support Group says Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), has a “vaulting” ambition to be president, but noted that such expectation will “collapse on his face”.

The group said this in a reaction to a submission made by Malami to the federal high court in Abuja.

In his submission, the AGF said former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is not eligible to run for president because he is not from Nigeria.

The suit was filed by the Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa (EMA) in 2019.

In a statement on Tuesday, Remi Adebayo, media director of the group, said the issues surrounding the citizenship of the former vice-president have been settled.

Adebayo said it is laughable that Malami is putting his weight “behind such an exercise in futility”.

“The suit before the court challenging the citizenship of Atiku Abubakar, it would be recalled, has been exhaustively dealt with by the court of appeal and affirmed by the supreme court at the final judgment during the presidential election petition tribunal,” he said.

“It must be expressly stated that Malami’s action is predicated on his ambition to run for the office of the President to take over from Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

“This inordinate ambition of Malami can be glimpsed from how desperately he moved against some of his own party men who have indicated interest to run against him in the APC, but ultimately, Atiku Abubakar is seen as the biggest threat hence this heinous move to stop the former Vice President.

“We have no doubt that this plot shall fail. Malami’s belief that he can use his position as the chief law officer and the instrumentality of the courts to achieve his vaulting ambition will also collapse on his face.”

Adebayo also urged the court not to be swayed by the AGF.

“We ask Nigerians to speak up and rise against this evil machination as it is capable of denying them (Nigerians) the much-needed good governance that would be brought by Atiku Abubakar when, God willing, he is elected into the office of the President come 2023,” he added.