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 Shettma 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 their 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 suffecient 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…’

“However, the provision reads further that ‘and accordingly all the legislative powers, the executive powers and the judicial power vested in the House of Assembly, the Governor of a state and in the courts of a state shall respectively, vest in the National Assembly, the President of the federation and in the courts, which by virtue of the foregoing provisions, are courts established for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.’

“A holistic reading of Section 299 seems to suggest that the FCT will be considered a state for the purpose of enjoying the executive, legislative and judicial powers vested in a state.

“Hence, the FCT is executively administered by the President, the National Assembly legislate the local laws of the FCT and the FCT High Court is the court with territorial jurisdiction in the FCT. Section 299 cannot be read in isolation of the part that starts with ‘and accordingly’.

“This is because the Constitution must be read together with its surrounding provisions.

“It is submitted that, the provisions of Section 299 can be interpreted to mean that the FCT will be regarded as a state to the extent of the exercising and enjoyment of executive, legislative and judicial powers by the President, National Assembly and the High Court the FCT, on behalf of the FCT and no more,” they said.

Citing some judicial authorities, Obi and the LP argued that “the Constitution is clear on the separate and distinct status of the FCT. It is treated as any other state in Nigeria.

Obi and LP added: “Further, going into the mischief of the additional requirement of 25 percent of votes in the FCT, we note that the 1979 Constitution was completely silent on this requirement and only stopped short at stating that the winning candidate must have 25 percent of at least two-third votes cast in all the States of the federation.

“Hence, the deliberate amendment of the drafters of the 1999 Constitution, to include the additional requirement of 25 percent votes in the FCT must not be rendered redundant as it is possible that the drafters intended that the popularity of the winning candidate must extend not only to an appreciable geographical spread, but also to the FCT being the capital city and melting pot for all Nigerians and which would truly reflect the will of all Nigerians,” they said.

The petitioners further contend that the Tinubu and Shettima were wrong “in the approach they have taken to the interpretation of the intention of the makers of the Constitution having regard to the provisions of Section 134(2) (b).”

Obi and the LP argued that they did substantially well to prove their case, having called 13 witnesses and tendered volumes of documents, as compared to one witness from INEC, one from Tinubu and Shettima, and none from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

They urged the court to uphold their petition and grants the reliefs contained therein. (Courtesy, excluding headline, The Nation)

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