Udora Orizu in Abuja
The opposition political parties under the auspices of Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) have filed a suit at the Federal High
Court, Abuja seeking that President Muhammadu Buhari be declared medically unfit to seek re-election in the February 16 presidential poll.
The CUPP spokesperson, Ikenga Ugochinyere, who stated this at a press conference in Abuja Thursday, said the coalition also sought an order directing Buhari to make public the result of his medical examination.
The CUPP described the step as a patriotic decision, saying re-electing the president would only empower members of a purported cabal who have hijacked the presidency to rule for another four years as earlier alleged by the wife of the president.
He said: “We have come to the conclusion that re-electing Buhari will only empower members of the cabal that his wife admitted has hijacked his presidency to rule us for another four years from the dark.
“In order to save this great country from the disaster that will follow if
President Buhari is in a rare happenstance re-elected, we the opposition political parties have therefore filed a litigation in court seeking to declare him unfit to contest for 2019 election because of his mental instability.”
Ugochinyere further said the parties were also seeking from the court an order disqualifying President Buhari from contesting the election to the office he presently occupies and an injunction restraining INEC from recognising his candidacy.
“Nigerians will also be glad to know that to prove that we are on the right path, we are also asking the court to grant an order directing President Buhari to make public the results of the medical examination which we ask that he be subjected to so that no citizen will be in doubt that we are saving the country from calamity by taking these steps.”
The co-plaintiff and presidential aspirant of National Interest Party
(NIP) who is also a member of CUPP, Eunice Atuejide, reiterated that all presidential candidates are ready to disclose their certificate of medical fitness and challenge President Buhari to also do so.
Meanwhile, Ugochinyere yesterday raised the alarm over an alleged move by men of the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest him within
24 hours.
The CUPP leader, who raised the alarm at a press briefing in Abuja, said the plan was to arrest him and keep him away until after the February 16 presidential elections.
He stressed that his problem was because he is in possession of copies of Asset Declaration forms of some top government officials, including that of the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu.
He said: “I have been informed by our contact in the DSS that the service has perfected arrangements to arrest me any moment from today or tomorrow and charge me to court, so that I will be kept in detention until after the elections.
“The reason they want to these offences against me, I have been approached by multiple sources in the government to tune down the level of my opposition to the government. But because of my conscience and conviction that the president is unfit to hold this office, I can’t betray that trust and belief people have in the opposition and also as the spokesman for the opposition.”
