Tinubu Cautions Poll Tribunal On Interpretation Of Abuja 25 Per Cent Votes

President Tinubu has asked the presidential poll tribunal to dismiss the petitions before it seeking to cancel his election on the ground he did not score 25 per cent of votes cast in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the February 25, 2023 polls.

The PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party’s Peter Obi, had asked the tribunal to cancel Tinubu’s election as the winner of the poll because he scored less than 25 per cent of votes cast in the territory.

Tinubu’s lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun in his final written address to the tribunal said his client does not need to score 25 per cent of voted in FCT,

which according to him is Nigeria’s thirty seventh state for electoral purposes.

Olanipekun told the tribunal that any other interpretation would plunge the country into chaos,anarchy and absurdity, as well as altering the intention of the national assembly.

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Olanipekun also said the claim by obi and Atiku on the compulsory 25 per cent of votes in fct by a presidential poll to win election is strange to the electoral act.

Mr Tinubu’s lawyers denied the allegations in court, saying whatever payment Mr Tinubu made to U.S. authorities was not in the form of a ‘fine’ as stated in the

Nigerian Constitution. In any case, the case did not happen in Nigeria, they further argued.

Messrs Abubakar and Obi are expected to file their responses individually to the arguments mounted by Mr Tinubu’s lawyers in the coming weeks,

after which the tribunal — a panel of justices of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal — would finalise arguments and deliver a judgement.

Notwithstanding the final judgment of the tribunal, the matter is widely expected to terminate at the Supreme Court, which would then have 60 days to deliver its ruling.