See what Presidential Election Petition Tribunal says on 25% of votes in Abuja
Nothing special about FCT, Tribunal tells LP, Obi on 25% requirement
Nigeria’s Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal has declared that the country’s Federal Capital Territory, Abuja does not hold a higher status than other states in the country.
Justice Haruna Tsammani, the lead judge of the five-man panel declared this during the tribunal’s sitting on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to him, Section 134 (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) stipulates that a presidential candidate must attain or score a majority of votes cast in a presidential election, where two or more candidates are involved, and at least 25% in two-thirds of the 36 States and FCT to meet the constitutional requirement to be declared as duly elected as President of Nigeria.
During the 2023 presidential election on February 25, LP and Obi won 25%, securing about 59 percent of the votes.
Neither Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (19 percent) nor Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (15 percent) scored up to 25 percent of the votes in the Nigerian capital.
According to the tribunal, FCT residents have no special privileges, as the petitioners claimed.
This position suggests that not getting 25% in Abuja will not precluded a contestant from winning a presidential election in Nigeria so far as he gets the 25% in two-thirds of the 36 states in the country.
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