‘The Presidential Election Petitions Court has issued a verdict on Wednesday, September 6, declaring the petition brought forth by the Labour party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, against Bola Tinubu’s victory in the February 25, 2023 presidential election as ‘lacking in merit.’
In delivering their judgment, the panel of five justices, headed by Justice Haruna Tsammani, criticized the Labour party’s argument as absurd. The party had contended that Tinubu should not have been declared the election winner due to his failure to secure more than 25 percent of the votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and not being legitimately elected by the majority of lawful votes cast.’
The tribunal considered the directive of state policy and the preamble of the constitution that provides for the equality of citizens and held that by the provisions of Section 134 (2a) of the constitution, and without any form of equivocation, “scoring 25 percent in the FCT in a presidential election is not mandatory and this issue was also resolved against the petitioner and in favour of the respondent”.
The court subsequently declared LP’s petition clearly unmeritorious.
