Admin I Monday, July 17, 2023
ABUJA, Nigeria – Chief Wole Olanipekun, leading representation for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, PEPT has said that the argument that a candidate for Presidential election must score 25 in FCT is nothing but hearsay and not backed by any fact known to law in Nigeria.
Olanipekun, SAN made the claim in his final written address at the PEPT. According to him, the “remote” contention of the petitioners that his client’s election should be canceled for not scoring 25 percent or one-quarter of the votes recorded in the FCT is not backed by any fact known to the law as the use of “and” in the constitution is conjunctive and not disjunctive, he averred.
Section 134 of the I999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, states as follows: A candidate for an election to the office of the President shall be deemed to have been duly elected, there being only two candidate for the election
(a)he has the majority of votes cast at the election; and
(b)he has not less than one -quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two thirds of all the states in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”
Olanipekun, leading other lawyers representing President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima, told the PEPT to dismiss the petition of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, and his party in his final written address.
According to him, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja is like Nigeria’s 37 state.
Olanipekun argued that Tinubu, then candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) scored 25% of the lawful votes cast in the FCT and that any other interpretation will lead to chaos and anarchy in the country.
“May we draw the attention of the court to the fact that there is no punctuation (comma) in the entire section 134(2)(b) of the constitution, particularly, immediately after the ‘States’ and the succeeding ‘and’ connecting the Federal Capital Territory with the States.
“In essence, the reading of the subsection has to be conjunctive and not disjunctive, as the Constitution clearly makes it so. Pressed further, by this constitutional imperative, the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, is taken ‘as if’ it is the 37th State, under and by virtue of section 299 of the Constitution.
“With much respect, any other interpretation different from this will lead to absurdity, chaos, anarchy and alteration of the very intention of the legislature,” Olanipekun said, describing the arguments and testimonies of witnesses presented by the challengers as “frivolous, bogus and based on hearsay”.
He urged PEPT to dismiss the petition as totally lacking in merit, substance and bona fide and that the “remote” contention of the petitioners that his client’s election should be canceled for not scoring 25 percent or one-quarter of the votes recorded in the FCT is not backed by any fact known to the law.
