Presidential Tribunal declares Obi’s petition as unmeritious, says all grounds decided in favour of Tinubu

The petitions filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, asserting that President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was not legitimately elected at the election on February 25, 2023, were deemed “unmeritorious” by the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal on Wednesday.

On the contention by LP that Tinubu ought not to be declared winner of the election because he scored less than 25 per cent votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast, the Tribunal held that the argument is “ridiculous”.

The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani considered the directive of state policy and the preamble of the constitution that provides for the equality of citizens and held that by the provisions of Section 134 (2a) of the constitution, and without any form of equivocation, “scoring 25 percent in the FCT in a presidential election is not mandatory and this issue was also resolved against the petitioner and in favour of the respondent”.

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

Obi won about 59% of votes cast in the FCT which neither President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (19%), nor Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), (15 %) scoring 25%.

Justice Tsammani held that FCT residents have no special privileges as the petitioner claimed.

The court subsequently declared LP’s petition clearly unmeritorious.

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