PEPC wipes 25% votes in FCT from winning requirement

Sopuruchi Onwuka

In a quashing spree that bored the audience at the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja on Wednesday, judges determined that winning 25% in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was not necessary in becoming president of Nigeria.

The decision brings to question the role of the clause in the Electoral Act which provides guidance to the polling authorities in determining the pattern of votes that indicate the plurality of choice of a candidate seeking to oversee the administration of the entire during an election.

The panel of judges that reeled out verdicts on petitions standing against the election of President Bola Tinubu in the February presidential polls declared that the voters in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja are equal to every other voters in the states in Nigeria.

The judges stated that Abuja voters should not have any special status in general elections.

The verdict of the court came against prayers of the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for President Bola Tinubu to be disqualified for failing to fulfill the requirement of winning 25 percent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT).

Their respective petitions pointed at the sections of the Electoral Act which makes winning 25% of the FCT votes mandatory for presidential election victory.

The petitioners had argued that the Electoral Act requires that in addition to meeting other requirements, winning 25 percent of votes in the FCT was a necessary requirement of being declared winner in a presidential election.

The quashing of the petition on 25 percent votes in the FCT gives the trend of PEPC verdicts a predictable pattern after the court had earlier quashed the case of massive rigging alleged by Obi in favour of Tinubu.

It also dismissed petitions by the APM again the APC for lateness and lacking a standing ground in another party’s internal processes.