Datti Baba Ahmed, the vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25 presidential election, has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, not to swear in the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as president on May 29.
Ahmed made this plea on Wednesday as a guest on the Channels Television Politics Today programme, where he insisted that it was wrong to swear in a man who didn’t meet the constitutional requirement to be sworn in as president.
“Mr. President, do not hold that inauguration. CJN, your Lordship, do not partake in unconstitutionality,” Ahmed pleaded.
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Peter Obi (Ahmed’s principal) had filed a petition at the presidential tribunal on Tuesday challenging Tinubu’s victory insisting that his victory was not only illegal but violated critical areas of the constitution.
Ahmed supporting the petition filed by Obi insisted that the truth must be said and that he was willing to take risks if it means doing what is right.
“I believe in this document, and that is why I am so lawful and so confident; and however extreme it is, I am not taking any risk. Swearing in a ticket that has not met the requirement of the constitution is ending democracy,” he said.
“And it is indeed the correct interpretation, and you cannot swear people who have not met the constitutional requirement.”
He repeated that to swear in Tinubu was to endorse an illegality. “You can’t do that; if you did it, you have done something unlawful and unconstitutional. And I am repeating it: “Whoever does not meet the constitutional requirement must never be sworn in.”
He insisted that he was ready to lose his life if that is what it took to ensure the constitutional requirements are followed to the letter. “I am Datti Baba Ahmed; I am not taking a risk with my safety and life, but I am repeating it: swear in anybody who does not meet the constitutional requirement of our country; you are engaging in an unconstitutional exercise.”
“I am taking this risk for the sake of my country. Yes, it is extreme, and I am saying it, but it was more extreme for Yakubu to issue that certificate. It was reckless; he is putting all our lives in danger. All of us are already at risk what there again is me taking that risk,. What have they not done against Nigeria? What have they not abused against Nigeria? Now they would take the Constitution, where it is clear that when they said “and get 24, and FCT,” they failed to get it. They are going to swear this man in, and I should be afraid? I will not be,” he said.
