The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar did not meet the constitutional requirements to be declared winner of the February 25 election.
While urging the Presidential Election Petition Court to dismiss the petition filed by Atiku and the PDP, the commission said the PDP flag bearer did not score at least, one-quarter of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as such could not have been declared the winner.
INEC added that the election was carried out in strict compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 and was not dented by any corrupt practices.
The commission said the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu legally won the election and that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate met all the legal requirements to be announced as the winner.
INEC also argued that a candidate does not need to secure 25 per cent of votes in the FCT to be declared the winner.
On why Tinubu was returned as the winner, INEC said the APC candidate secured 25 per cent of the valid votes cast in 29 states of the Federation and added that by the margin of the lead, it did not act hastily to declare Tinubu the winner.
It stated that Tinubu garnered 25 per cent of the valid votes cast in 29 states, namely: Ekiti, Kwara, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Yobe, Lagos, Gombe, Adamawa, Katsina, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Niger, Benue, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Kogi, Bauchi, Plateau, Bayelsa, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kano, Zamfara, Sokoto, Taraba, Borno and Rivers.
It added that the FCT, apart from being the capital of Nigeria “has no special constitutional status over and above the other 36 states of the Federation” to require a candidate in the presidential election to secure at least 25 percent of the votes cast in the FCT before being declared winner of the presidential election.
The commission later urged the Tribunal to dismiss Atiku’s petition.
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