Five Federal Capital Territory (FCT) residents have sued the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) over Senator Bola Tinubu’s election as Nigeria’s president-elect.
The plaintiffs in the complaint filed on April 28, 2023, before the Federal High Court in Abuja allege that Senator Tinubu failed to secure at least 25% of the votes polled in the FCT.
The plaintiffs, Anyaegbunam Okoye, David Adzer, Jeffrey Ucheh Osang Paul, and Chibuike Nwanchukwu, who sued for themselves and on behalf of other residents and registered voters in the FCT, are asking the court to determine “whether or not the person who is to be elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and consequently administrator of the FCT through the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and the Federal Capital Territory Development Authority, on the first ballot, is required by section 134(2)(b) of the Constitution to obtain at least 25% of the votes cast in the FCT”.
Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, was proclaimed the winner of the February 25, 3023 presidential election with eight million, seven hundred and ninety-four thousand, seven hundred and twenty-six votes.
The plaintiffs also want a ruling prolonging President Muhammadu Buhari‘s mandate until a successor is chosen in conformity with the constitution.
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They want the court to overturn Senator Tinubu’s certificate of return and to prevent the CJN and any other judicial officer from swearing in any candidate in the presidential election as president or vice-president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria until the case is resolved.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on the other hand, believes that a candidate must not receive 25% of the votes cast in the FCT in order to be declared winner because the FCT was not granted any special status in the constitution, as “erroneously” depicted.
