Tinubu, Atiku Fall Short Of a Vital Criterion For Presidency in FCT – Witness

Patrick OdeyJune 5, 2023

1 minute read

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is a special state in Nigeria that hosts the seat of power and the national collation centre for presidential elections. It is also a state where both the winner and the runner-up of the 2023 presidential election failed to meet a crucial condition for being declared as president.

According to a witness of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, neither Atiku nor Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) scored 25 percent of votes in the FCT, which he claimed was a compulsory condition to be declared as president based on the constitutional provision.

The witness, who testified under cross examination by counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mohammed Aliyu, said his statement was not his personal opinion but based on the law.

However, when he was asked if his candidate, Atiku, got the required result in the FCT, he admitted that he did not. “My candidate did not score 25 percent of votes in the FCT by the purported result published by INEC,” he said.

He also insisted that his assertion was based on the law, even though he was neither a lawyer nor a mathematician.

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The witness was challenged by counsel to Tinubu, Akin Olujimi (SAN), who pointed out that FCT is like any other state and that there was no such requirement for presidency in the constitution.

According to the official results announced by INEC, Tinubu won the 2023 presidential election with 8,794,726 votes (36.61 percent), followed by Atiku with 6,984,520 votes (29.07 percent). Peter Obi of Labour Party came third with 6,101,533 votes (25.40 percent) and was the only candidate who polled over 25 percent in FCT during the February 25 election.

The results have been disputed by Atiku and Obi, who have filed petitions at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal challenging Tinubu’s victory on various grounds, including alleged irregularities and fraud. The tribunal is yet to deliver its judgment on the matter.