The complaints of the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, claiming that President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was not lawfully elected during the February 25, 2023 election, were deemed “unmeritorious” by the Presidential Election complaints Court on Wednesday.
The Tribunal dismissed LP’s allegation 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 constitutionally elected by a majority of lawfully cast votes.
The five-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsammani 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.