The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for president, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been asked to withdraw from the 2023 election by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), due to his purported conviction by a US court.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday at the PDP Presidential Campaign office in Abuja, a spokesperson for the campaign, Kola Ologbondiyan, said Tinubu was no longer eligible to run in any elections in Nigeria as a result of his "criminal conviction and sentencing by a Court of Competent Jurisdiction in the United States."
Ologbondiyan said: “It is already established that trafficking in narcotic is an international crime which all nations are obligated by international conventions and statutes to arrest, prosecute and implement any Court judgment imposed on offender anywhere in the world, as well as the consequential effects of such judgements.
“As you are all aware, Nigeria is a signatory to such international conventions and therefore is mandatorily obligated to implement the consequential effect of the conviction imposed on Tinubu by a Court of Competent jurisdiction in the criminal case of trafficking in narcotic.”
He requested the court to order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remove Tinubu's name from all materials and records pertaining to the 2023 Presidential election and to promptly delist Tinubu as a presidential candidate of the APC or any other political Party.
Additionally, he claimed that Bola Tinubu's name appearing on the ballot for the 2023 presidential election is fundamentally illegal, invalid, and requires immediate erasure under Section 137 (1) (d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Tinubu has been found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.