The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) on Wednesday in Abuja said that one does not need to score 25 per cent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) to win presidential elections in the country.
Delivering the lead judgement in the petition filed by Mr Peter Obi and the Labour Party, Justice Haruna Tsammani said that scoring 25 per cent was not constitutionally required.
According to Tsammani, the petitioner’s interpretation of Section 134 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution was based on a fixation of the word “and” and this is completely fallacious if not outrightly ridiculous.
Justice Tsammani held that there was equality of rights irrespective of which part of the country voters preferred to live in.
“Every citizen must have equality of rights and this includes votes.
“The futility and hollowness in the arguments of the petitioners that the votes of the voters in the FCT have more weight than others in other parts of the country to the extent that their votes purportedly have a greater effect on other votes is null and void,” the court held.
The court held that votes of voters in the FCT were equal to other voters in states in Nigeria, hence, Abuja has no special status.
The petitioners had submitted that winning 25 per cent of votes in the FCT in addition to meeting other requirements, was a necessary for being declared winner in a presidential election.
