JUST IN: Court To Probe Tinubu Over Guinean Citizenship
A civil society organisation has asked the Federal High Court, Abuja, to order the investigation and prosecution of Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, over his alleged Guinean citizenship.
The Advocacy for Societal Rights Advancement and Development Initiative (ASRADI) accused Mr Tinubu of perjury for refusing to disclose his alleged dual citizenship to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In the suit filed on Tuesday, the group urged the court to order the police to probe the case and possibly refer Mr Tinubu to the Attorney-General of the Federation for prosecution.
It pleaded with the court to hear and determine the request “before the swearing-in of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29 May 2023.”
Mr Tinubu will begin to enjoy constitutional immunity from prosecution once he is inaugurated on 29 May.
Mr Tinubu, who won the February presidential election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been enmeshed in a recent controversy over his alleged citizenship of the Republic of Guinea.
A former Guinean President, Alpha Condé, confirmed his conferment of “Ambassador extraordinaire” on Mr Tinubu, whom he described as a “pan-Africanist.”
However, Tinubu has neither confirmed nor denied his dual citizenship of Nigeria and Guinea.
Following Mr Tinubu’s silence over the issue, a civil society group called for the police’s prosecution of the president-elect.
It alleged that Mr Tinubu lied on oath by refusing to disclose Guinean citizenship in his Form EC9 submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2023 presidential election.
The allegation of Tinubu’s citizenship has also been featured at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja, where Mr Tinubu’s victory at the 25 February presidential election is being challenged.
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In an affidavit of urgency in support of an ex-parte request, the group’s lawyer, Chukwunweike Okafor, urged the court to grant his client permission to apply for an order compelling the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, to investigate and prosecute Mr Tinubu if found guilty of perjury regarding his Guinean citizenship.
Citing relevant provisions of the Nigerian constitution and the Police Act, Mr Okafor said the police have a statutory duty to investigate Mr Tinubu for alleged perjury contained in INEC’s Form EC9 sworn to by him on 14 June 2022 concerning his Guinean citizenship.
“An order of mandamus compelling the respondent (police) to investigate the fillings made by Bola Ahmed Tinubu in respect of his Guinean citizenship contained in INEC Form EC9 sworn to by him on June 14, 2022, and where he is found culpable of the offence of perjury, refer him to the Attorney General of the Federation for prosecution”.
In the affidavit sworn to by Adeolu Oyinlola, Executive Director of ASRADI, the applicant urged the court to hear and determine the request “before the swearing-in of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29 May 2023.”
“The non-disclosure by Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the INEC Form EC9 of his dual citizenship of his voluntary acquisition of the citizenship of Guinea amounts to Perjury”.
Accompanying the application is a letter by the plaintiff to the IGP dated 8 May.
The letter with the title, ‘Demand for Investigation of Bola Ahmed Tinubu for Suspected Perjury’, read in part, “At page three (3) of the affidavit in support of personal particulars Form EC9 which Ahmed Tinubu filled and submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) preparatory to contesting for President on February 25, 2023, he declared on oath in answer to question eleven (11) that he has not voluntarily acquired citizenship of any other country.
“However, it has now come to light that (the) subject has indeed voluntarily acquired citizenship of Guinea.”
Meanwhile, with less than two weeks to Mr Tinubu’s inauguration, no date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
