5 FCT residents file suit to stop Tinubu’s inauguration

Five residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have sued the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) over the declaration of Senator Bola Tinubu as the nation’s president-elect.

The plaintiffs in the suit filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja on April 28, 2023 aver that Senator Tinubu failed to secure at least 25 percent of votes cast 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, who was the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential poll with eight million, seven hundred and ninety-four thousand, seven hundred and twenty-six votes.

The plaintiffs also want a declaration extending President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure pending when a successor is determined in accordance with the Constitution.

They want the court to set aside the certificate of return issued to Senator Tinubu and restrain 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 pending the determination of the suit.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), however, insists that a candidate must not secure 25 percent of the votes in the FCT to be declared winner because the FCT was not accorded any special status in the constitution as being “erroneously” portrayed. CHANNELSTV