25% FCT Votes: I Expect The Court To Be Flexible In It's Interpretation Of Constitution – Ughegbe
In the wake of President Bola Tinubu’s call for the Election Petitions Tribunal not to nullify the February 25 presidential polls on the basis of his failure to secure twenty-five percent of the total votes cast in the nation’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), veteran journalist, and public affairs analyst, Lemmy Ughegbe has come out to emphasize the need for the court to properly and flexibly interpret the Constitution to resolve the issue of votes in Abuja.
Speaking during an interview on Africa Independent Television’s ‘Kaakaki’ program on Monday, July 17, Ughegbe opined that while the President’s message to the tribunal is not out of place, it is, however, important for the five-man-panel of Appeal Court Justices to consider the intentions of the legislators who created the constitutional provision for electoral votes in the FCT, when making their decision.
Going further, the veteran journalist stated that he found it quite illogical that an election will can be nullified on the basis of just one state alone, especially if a candidate succeeds in winning across 30 states.
He said; “That provision of the Constitution that refers to twenty-five percent of the votes in the FCT is a provision that is subject to interpretation. In football, certain rules are interpreted differently by referees. If a ball hits a player’s hand, one referee might interpret it as ‘handball’, while another might see it as ‘ball to hand’. So, we hope that the panel of tribunal justices, having listened to all the arguments before now, will be able to decipher and interpret the law.
But remember that the law also, is not supposed to bring confusion. My personal opinion is that no law that has been provided is meant to be illogical. If, for instance, a man has gotten twenty-five percent in 30 states and then you now come to the FCT and say because he didn’t get twenty-five percent, he cannot win. It sounds a bit illogical. This is where the Justices, when looking at certain sections of the law, must think about the intentions of the wise men who drafted the Constitution. What were their thoughts when creating those provisions? My position is that the law on twenty-five percent FCT votes should be interpreted flexibly because it is not meant to cause confusion.”
SOURCE: YouTube (Forward video to 1:12:21).
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