Presidential Tribunal: Tinubu's Lawyers Tackle Obi And Atiku Over Stance On 25% Votes In FCT

As Nigerians continue to monitor proceedings at the ongoing Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja, lawyers representing Bola Ahmed Tinubu have come out to dismiss claims being made by the Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that a candidate cannot be declared winner of a presidential election without scoring twenty-five percent of the votes cast in the nation’s Federal Capital Territory.

A report by The PUNCH indicates that in its Final Written Address filed before the tribunal on Friday, July 14, Tinubu’s legal team led by Wale Olanipekun (SAN), argued that the Constitution does not back the claim put forward by the petitioners.

According to the lawyers, Section 299 of the Constitution refers to Abuja as a state of the Federation and therefore cannot be given any special status. Going further, they claimed that the absence of a punctuation mark (comma) in Section 134 (2)(b) shows that the word ‘And’ cannot be used to describe the Federal Capital Territory as a special entity.

They wrote; “May we draw the attention of the court to the fact that there is no punctuation (comma) in the entire section of 134(2)(b) of the Constitution, particularly after the word ‘States’ was used. 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 FCT is taken as if it is the 37th State by 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. Our courts have always adopted a purposeful approach to the interpretation of our Constitution, as exemplified in a host of decisions.”

SOURCE: The PUNCH (TWITTER).

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