The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal has declared that the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, does not hold a higher status than other states in the country.
Justice Haruna Tsammani, the lead judge of the five-man panel declared this during the tribunal’s sitting on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to him, Section 134 (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) stipulates that a presidential candidate must attain or score a majority of votes cast in a presidential election, where two or more candidates are involved, and at least 25% in two-thirds of the 36 States and FCT to meet the constitutional requirement to be declared as duly elected as President of Nigeria.
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Similarly, the tribunal also rejected the European Union Election Observers Mission report on the 25 February presidential election tendered by Peter Obi and the Labour Party.
The court said it rejected the report on the grounds that it was not tendered by an official of the body, which is the author and has custody of the document.
The court also rejected the 18,088 blurred results sheets tendered by the petitioners on the grounds that they are not tied to any of the polling units to which the results referred to, and which the petitioners failed to specify in their petition.
The actual copy of the report was earlier tendered by Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party while prosecuting their petition before the tribunal.