25% in FCT not needed to be declared president – SANs

Senior lawyers yesterday said a presidential candidate does not need to secure 25 per cent of the votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to be declared the winner.

Eminent professor of law Itse Sagay, activist-lawyer Femi Falana, Abiodun Owonikoko and Ahmed Raji, all Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), as well as Dr Fassy Yusuf and Festus Ogun, said all a candidate needed to win was 25 per cent in 24 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Section 134 (2) of the 1999 Constitution provides: “A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being more than two candidates for the election (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”

READ ALSO:

• Tinubu, Shettima to get Certificates of Return 3pm today
• APC retains majority in Senate with 49 seats
• Tinubu gives victory speech, asks Atiku, Obi to avoid violence (Full Text)
• INEC Declares Tinubu President-Elect

For Sagay, the Constitution considers Abuja a state.

On whether a candidate must score 25 per cent in the FCT to be declared the winner, the SAN said: “No.”

“The constitutional provision does not mean that a candidate that does not score 25 per cent in Abuja cannot be declared the winner.

“So long as a candidate scores one-quarter of the votes in at least 25 states, and for these purposes, FCT is treated as a state, he can be declared the winner,” he said.

Falana said it was not compulsory for a presidential candidate to win the FCT outright to be declared the winner.

He said: “Section 299(1) of the Constitution provides that the provisions of the Constitution shall apply to the FCT as if it were one of the states of the federation. It means that the FCT is the 37th state.

The Nation