The Labour Party and its Presidential candidate, Peter Obi has stressed before the Presidential Election Petition Court that the Independent National Electoral Commission’s alleged failure to transmit the results of the presidential election electronically from the polling unit to its results viewing portal amounts to non-compliance with Electoral Act and other related regulations.
The petitioners stated this in their final written addresses while still calling on the court to nullify the victory of President Bola Tinubu on grounds that Tinubu and the Vice President, Kashim Shettma were not qualified to have contested the election.
They also contend that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was wrong to have declared Tinubu the winner of the election despite not scoring 25 per cent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
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These amongst others was the labour party and its candidate’s response to the joint final address by Tinubu and Shettima, seeking the dismissal of the petition.
The Labour Party and their Candidate, argued that they did substantially well to prove their case, having called 13 witnesses and tendered volumes of documents to prove their case.
They further argue 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.
While harping on Tinubu’s failure to win 25 percent of votes in the FCT, the Labour Party and its Presidential candidate while citing some judicial authorities, 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 and the Constitution is clear on the separate and distinct status of the FCT. It is treated as any other state in Nigeria.
“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.”
