UPDATE: TRIBUNAL DESCRIBES LP’S CLAIM OF TINUBU NOT DULY ELECTED PRESIDENT ‘UNMERITORIOUS’

September 6, 2023

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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 Court on Wednesday.

The Tribunal deemed the argument made by LP that Tinubu should not be declared the winner of the election because he received less than 25% of the vote in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and was not legitimately elected by a majority of lawfully cast ballots as “ridiculous.”

According to the provisions of Section 134 (2a) of the constitution, and without any ambiguity, “scoring 25 percent in the FCT in a presidential election is not mandatory; this issue was also resolved against the petitioner and in favour of the respondent,” according to the five-person panel headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani. The panel also took into consideration the directive of state policy and the preamble of the constitution, which guarantees the equality of citizens.

The court subsequently ruled that the petition filed by LP was manifestly meritless.