PEPT tags LP’s petition over 25% FCT requirement as ‘unmeritorious’

The contention that the prerequisite for presidential candidates to be proclaimed the election’s victor is that they must secure 25% of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has been rejected by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja.

The tribunal chairman, Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, said in a ruling on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, that there is no special status attached to the FCT and that it is equal to every other state in Nigeria.

The tagged the petition as “unmeritorious”.

READ ALSO: Electronic transmission of results by INEC not mandatory, PEPT rules

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.

The ruling was made in response to a petition filed by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, who challenged the election of President Bola Tinubu.

Obi had argued that Tinubu should be disqualified from being president because he did not win 25% of the votes cast in the FCT.

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