PEPC: Consider FCT as 37th state for purpose of presidential election, Tinubu tells Court

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2 years ago

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday asked the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja to consider the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja as the 37th state of the federation for the purpose of the February 25 presidential election.

Adopting his final written address in the petition filed by Atiku and his party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging his election, Tinubu, through his lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) urged the court to read the constitution collectively, particularly as it relates to FCT and submitted that that FCT, is the 37th state for purpose of the presidential election.

Referring to Section 134(2)(b) of the constitution which provides that a candidate contesting for post of president must score not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in at least two-third of all the states in the federation and FCT in Abuja, Olanipekun said, Tinubu won one-third of two-third votes in FCT which qualifies him to be declared president.

The senior lawyer also submitted that there is a difference between transfer and transmission and added that I-Rev plays no role in the collation of election results.

According to Olanipekun, it would be for public interest that the court would not set aside the decision of the electorate and urged the court to dismiss the petition.

Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), said the petitioners failed to discharge the burden of proof required of them by law.

He said the major plight of the petitioners is the non-compliance in the use of technological devices, which was a major innovation in the 2022 Electoral Act.

The application, he said, entails use of devices for authentication and transmission of election results from polling units to I-Rev and urged the court to hold that the innovation is effective and secured as provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

He said the evidence before the court shows clearly the good intention of INEC in its conduct of credible elections.

Mahmoud agreed with the petitioners that there was a glitch that disturbed the result in real time and urged the court to hold that the glitch was not human interference as the petitioners were not able to proof to court how it affected the final results of the election, stating that the whole case on noncompliance collapse.

Counsel to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), while adopting the final written address for the party, said all the issues raised by the petitioners have been addressed by judicial pronouncement and resolution.

On the $460,000 forfeiture order by US court, Fagbemi said it was not indictive to warrant his disqualification, however assuming it is a fine, noting that Nigeria Constitution is a forgiving one that does not breed hatred and it is over 20 years ago.

On dual citizenship, Fagbemi said the Nigerian Constitution allows a citizen by birth to contest with a dual citizenship certificate.

Lead Counsel to the petitioners, Chief Chris Uche (SAN) insisted that securing 25 percent vote cast in the FCT is mandatory constitutional requirement.

He said the technical glitch as claimed by INEC was deliberate in order to give room for manipulation of election results in favour of Tinubu.

According to him, the burden was on the electoral body to show why there was a technical glitch in technology that Nigeria had spent N355 billion.

Uche urged the court to hold that there was deliberate non compliance, which was nationwide to manipulate election results in favour of Tinubu.

Uche urged the court to accord values to the objective and neutral report of the European Union election observer mission, while urging the court to allow the petition and grant all the reliefs sought.

Meanwhile the court reserved judgment in the petition to a date that would be communicated to parties in the petition.

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