President ’s outburst on 25 per cent FCT votes sparks fresh controversy
by babagana jidda kanempress
20th july, 2023
The candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2023 presidential election and now President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has stirred controversy.
President Tinubu had cautioned the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPT, against attempting to remove him from office based on grounds that he did not get 25 percent of the total votes cast during the presidential election in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.
The President warned that such action could lead to chaos and anarchy in the country.
President Tinubu asked the election tribunal to dismiss the petition seeking the nullification of his election for not securing 25 percent of the lawful votes cast in the FCT, arguing that having scored 25 percent in about 30 states of the federation, his failure to obtain 25 percent in the FCT would not be strong enough to deny him of his hard-earned victory.
Tinubu had contested the February 25 presidential elections on the platform of the ruling APC and was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, after polling 8,794,726 votes to defeat his rivals, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who polled 6, 984, 520 votes and and Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, who came third with 6,101,533 votes.
Atiku and Obi had had approached the election tribunal seeking to upturn President Tinubu’s victory based on the fact that the elections were marred by massive rigging, widespread voters’ intimidation and suppression, ballot box snatching and destruction, over-voting, results manipulations, thuggery, vote buying, INEC’s failure to abide by its own rules and procedures, physical assault on voters, among others.
Atiku and Obi also want President Tinubu’s victory to be nullified as he did not score 25 percent of the total valid votes cast in the FCT, which according to them, is a constitutional requirement before anybody can be declared president of Nigeria.
President Tinubu’s declaration as the winner of that election, have occupied political discussion based on developments from the election tribunal.
Analysts are of the opinion Nigerians are more politically informed and participation in the 2023 general elections.
The issue around Tinubu’s failure to get 25 percent of the votes cast in the FCT is the strongest point against the president since it is a constitutional issue and does not require presenting any witness by the petitioners.
President Tinubu’s legal counsel, Wole Olanipekun, in a final written address to the tribunal against the petition, argued that the FCT is the 37th state for electoral purposes.
Olanipekun insisted that any other interpretation would “lead to absurdity, chaos, anarchy and alteration of the very intention of the legislature.”
“The issue in this address is very novel in the sense that it is not a petition stricto senso, familiar to our electoral jurisprudence, as the petitioners are not, this time around, complaining about election rigging, ballot box snatching, ballot box stuffing, violence, thuggery, vote buying, voters’ intimidation, disenfranchisement, interference by the military or the police, and such other electoral vices.”
