The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation has challenged all presidential candidates for the 2023 election to submit themselves to medical fitness checks, including narcotic examination.

It called on the Chairman of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency, Buba Marwa, to carry out the drugs test.

Spokesperson for the group, Senator Dino Melaye, gave this position while speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Saturday.

According to him, it is a constitutional requirement for anyone in the office of the President of Nigeria to be mentally and physically fit.

He said since drug abuse had become a serious malaise in the country, it was also necessary to ensure that anyone aspiring to the highest office in the land must be free of the habit, knowing that he would be the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

He claimed that while the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, was physically and mentally fit, that of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was not.

He said, “To be the President of the Republic of Nigeria, the Constitution of the Republic of Nigeria (as amended) says that you must be physically and mentally fit.

“Tinubu is not physically and mentally fit. I challenge him to a medical examination between him and Atiku.

“Because this is a constitutional requirement to be president and he should fulfil it. We challenge them, both of them should go for a medical examination because the Constitution says that you must be physically and mentally fit to be president.

“And we want to see if the pronouncement of agbado, if the pronouncement of cassava, if the pronouncement that 50 million youths should be employed on the farm, if the pronouncement by Tinubu that people are tweeting on WhatsApp….So, if it is just a mere statement or made out of mental imbalance, we want to know.

“I want to know this mental state of my president. I want to know this is the current state of who will be my president.

“Aso Rock is looking for a healer and not a patient. We don’t want a president that will visit London every week again, and cause an economic and social distraction for us as a nation.”

When reminded that Tinubu had argued that he was not contesting to be a wrestler or a sprinter, Melaye responded, “I have just told you the constitutional requirement for you to be president of this country that you must be physically and mentally fit.

“He should surrender himself to a medical examination for his mental and physical fitness. You need to be fit to be president of this country.

“Even ordinary NDA (Nigeria Defence Academy), you are going to, you must do a medical exam. If you want to join the police, you must do your medical tests. You want to join the Army, you must do medical tests. You want to join the Navy….

“And this is a man who is going to be Commander-in-Chief of all our Armed Forces put together.vHe must also go through medical fitness. So, I challenge the presidential candidates to submit themselves to medical fitness examination, including narcotic examination.

“I call on Buba Marwa to carry Atiku and Tinubu and collect their blood samples for drug tests because anyone who must be our president must be free of drugs because we are fighting as a nation seriously to battle drug abuse.”