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The Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) has dismissed the petition filed by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, seeking to nullify President Bola Tinubu's victory over failure to score 25% of votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Obi and his party had stated in the petition against Tinubu that the President's failure to record up to 25% of votes cast in the FCT in the February 25 election rendered his declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner a nullity.
However, in the judgement read by Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, chairman of the tribunal chairman, on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, the court held that FCT doesn't enjoy special status and, therefore, is equal to every other state in Nigeria.
The ruling emphasised that the constitution grants every Nigerian equal rights, and such rights extend to voting, thereby declaring that votes cast in the FCT don't carry extra status compared to those cast in other states of the federation.
The ruling put paid to Obi's ambition to overturn his election defeat against Tinubu as other points raised in his petition have been ruled in favour of the President.
The tribunal earlier struck out Obi's request to disqualify Tinubu over an alleged claim of drug indictment in a case in the United States.
The court ruled that Obi and his party failed to prove that the President was convicted of money laundering in the U.S., adding that no record of criminal arrest or conviction was established against the APC candidate by the petitioners.
In the same vein, the court also dismissed the testimonies of 10 out of 13 witnesses presented by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, stating that only the three accepted witnesses were filed along with the petition, while the rejected witnesses were filed after the hearing had commenced.