Nigeria’s Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Thursday distanced himself from a suit at the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, querying the citizenship of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Malami, in a statement by his media aide, Dr. Umar Gwandu, denied instituting any legal action on the citizenship of Atiku.

Malami was linked to a suit seeking to disqualify the former vice president from contesting the presidency on the ground that he is not a Nigerian.

However, the minister denied the allegation, saying he “has never filed any case before any court in the country challenging the citizenship of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.”

He stated that the matter in contention was part of the 2019 pre-election matters instituted by a civil society organisation, the Incorporated Trustees of Egalitarian Mission for Africa in respect of which Atiku, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation were co-defendants.

The statement said the issue had already been widely reported by the media since April 2019, adding that it was unfortunate that stale news stories capable of causing confusion were repackaged and presented to the public as current news.