Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Olisa Agbakoba, has given two reasons why the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the F
Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Olisa Agbakoba, has given two reasons why the declaration of Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election cannot stand.
Agbakoba who was speaking on Arise TV on Wednesday morning listed section 134(2) of the Nigerian constitution, which provides the conditions to be met before one is declared a winner of a presidential election and section 35 of the Electoral Act 2022 as amended which forbids candidates from contesting two positions in an election.
He explained that the two positions are very clear and unambiguous and do not require lengthy time or argument for the tribunal to decide cases brought before them.
“134 (2); It applies literally, because the rule of interpretation says if you read something and it’s so clear to you, then you don’t need to interpret it. The thing says you must win a quarter of the votes in ⅔ of 36 states AND the…and then what do you want to say? The answer is obvious.”
When pressed by the presenter to break it down, he said, “I have just broken it down. Reuben (Abati), I have broken it down. You want to put words in my mouth, which I won’t accept. It’s so simple, you get a quarter of the votes in ⅔ of 24 states. That’s what the law says, which is 24. So that’s one part of it.
“It goes on to say, ‘AND’. What does that mean?
“AND the FCT. So as far as I am concerned, you must also win 25% in the FCT. But that’s not for me to say because I would be pre-judging what’s before the tribunal. So we think the tribunal can answer this question quite easily in one hour. That’s my point. Quite easily, it’s not a difficult question to resolve,” he said.
Agbakoba had before the general elections written to INEC to clarify its position on the true interpretation of the section.
The constitutional provision says “A candidate for an election to the office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected, where, there being only two candidates for the election – he has the majority of votes cast at the election; and 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.
“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-he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and 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.”
In the letter sent to INEC, Agbakoba quoted the section copiously stating that, “I reviewed section 134 carefully, specifically, subsections 134 (1) (b) and (2) (b), and wondered if “two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja” means either of the following: that a presidential candidate must score 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 which means 24 states, the 24 States will include the Federal Capital Territory Abuja as a “State”, or (b) that a presidential candidate must score 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 which means 24 states and in addition to meeting the one-quarter requirement in 24 states, a candidate must also win one-quarter of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“In this sense, a Presidential candidate must have one-quarter of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, in addition to scoring not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in 24 States of theFederation, to be duly elected,” he wrote.
He asked, “is the requirement that a presidential candidate must score not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of the 36 States of the Federation; does this mean that the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja is incorporated in the 24 States?”
Speaking on Wednesday, he said INEC did not reply and never clarified what its interpretation was “if not we won’t be in this logjam today.”
He also said section 35 of the electoral act 2022 as amended, which deals with contesting for election can be interpreted within a few minutes.
The section says, “Where a candidate knowingly allows himself to be nominated by more than one political party or in more than one constituency, his nomination shall be void.”
He queried that, “What is more difficult in determining section 35, which says that if you are a vice presidential candidate, on a party’s platform, you couldn’t be a Senatorial candidate at the same time?
“Is there any difficult thing in that? It’s simple English. That would take me two minutes to decide. So I still reiterate that 7 days is enough time,” to determine the first part of the petitions, Agbakoba said.
Recall in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled against David Lyon, governor-elect of Bayelsa State on account of his deputy, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo’s, presentation of false information to the INEC as his qualification for the governorship election in the state.
The court consequently ordered INEC to immediately declare the party with the highest number of lawful votes and geographical spread the winner of the election.
The PDP’s governorship candidate in the election, Diri Duoye, was eventually declared the winner and issued the certificate of return.
According to Agbakoba, if the court decided against Shettima, who was a Senatorial candidate in the 2023 election, that he couldn’t have been a candidate in two capacities, then it’s a replay of what happened in Bayelsa, which would affect Tinubu’s status as candidate of the APC.
