The People’s Democratic Party(PDP ) in Ondo state has rejected Wednesday’s ruling of the election petition tribunal nollifying the victory of Ikengboju Gboluga as the lawmaker representing Okitipupa/Irele constituency in the House of Representatives.
The Justice Nuhu Adi led tribunal had sacked the PDP lawmaker over issue of dual citizenship, directing the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC ) to withdraw certificate of return from him and issue Albert Akintoye, the first runners up and candidate of the All Progrssives Congress (APC).
Zadok Akintoye, the Director of Media and Publicity of the party in a statement said the basis of which the tribunal gave the ruling was against the constitution of the country under section 25 of the 1999 constitution as amended.
The party maintained that the citizenship by birth of Hon. Gboluga cannot be forfeited by virtue of his secondary citizenship of the United Kingdom
The statement read: ” The constitution, by virtue of section 28(1) which deals with dual citizenship and forfeiture of Nigerian citizenship, states expressly that: Subject to the other provisions of this section, a person shall forfeit his Nigerian Citizenship if, NOT being a citizen Nigeria by birth, he acquires or retains the citizenship or nationality of a country, other than Nigeria, of which he is not a citizen by birth.
” Hon Ikengboju Gboluga therefore as a Nigerian citizen by birth cannot forfeit his citizenship if he acquires the citizenship of another country. This position has been endorsed by the Supreme Court in several cases. The possession of a secondary citizenship as in Hon Ikengboju Gbolugas’ case is therefore NOT a reason for the court to invalidate his victory at the polls. His Nigerian Citizenship by birth cannot be forfeited on any ground as posited by the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal.
” Let it be on record, that the petitioners, in this case, lost the election with a margin of well over 90,000 votes and only won in his ward in his local government with a margin of less than 20 votes.
” Thus we conclude that the Tribunal should have upheld a legitimate victory rather than use technicalities that are purely procedural to seek to set aside a valid election.
” Our party, therefore, rejects in its entirety the decision of the Tribunal which is in variance and contravention of the constitute of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and therefore would be appealing this judgment.
” We enjoin all members of our party to remain calm as we retrieve this mandate at the appeal court.”
