Obi, LP restate call for nullification of Tinubu’s election, gives strong reasons

The Labour Party (LP) and its candidate in the last presidential election, Peter Obi, have restated their call for the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) to void the electoral victory of President Bola Tinubu.

The LP and Obi argued that Tinubu and the Vice President, Kashim Shettima were not qualified to have contested the election.

They also contended that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was wrong to have declared Tinubu the winner of the election despite not scoring 25 percent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The LP and Obi are pushing arguments in their final written address in response to the joint final address by Tinubu and Shettima, seeking the dismissal of the petition by the LP and its candidate.

In stressing thier claim of non-compliance with Electoral Act and other related regulations, Obi and his party that INEC’s alleged failure to transmit the results of the presidential election electronically from the polling unit to its results viewing portal amounted to non-compliance.

They argued that the forfeiture proceedings allegedly involving Tinubu in a United States District Court was sufficient to have him disqualified by INEC from standing for election.

Obi and the LP also argued that it was wrong for INEC to have declared Tinubu winner in view of his failure to win 25 percent of votes in the FCT.

“It is submitted that a purposive reading of Section 134(2), Section 299 and the remainder provisions give us the conclusion that obtaining 25 percent votes in the FCT is an additional stand-alone requirement for election into the office of the president or the FCT is only a state, together with Nigeria’s 36 states, where the winning candidate must have obtained, at least 25 percent in two-thirds of all states (37 states).

“A literal reading of Section 134(2) of the Constitution gives the interpretation that

a winning candidate must have 25 percent of total votes cast in two third of the states in the federation and the FCT, meaning that a winning candidate must obtain 25 percent in 24 states and in the FCT.

“This is more so, as Section 3 and Part II of the second schedule lists the states of the federation, and the FCT is not included as a state.

“Going further, the Constitution in Section 299 has an interesting provision. It provides that ‘the provisions of this Constitution shall apply to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja as if it were one of the states of the federation…’