A constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Mike Ozekhome SAN, has argued that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu should not have been declared the winner of the just concluded presidential election because he failed to score 25% in the federal capital territory even though he had the highest votes and scored 25% in 24 states across the country.
Ozekhome’s position is coming after another legal luminary, Femi Falana SAN said it is not compulsory for a presidential candidate to score 25% in the federal capital territory before he can be declared winner of the presidential election. Falana had explained few days ago that the law sees the FCT as any of the 36 states in the country.
In an interview, Professor Mike Ozekhome, SAN, said that a candidate needs to win at least 25% of votes in 24 states and 25% in the FCT before he can be declared the winner.
Quoting section 132 and 134 of the 1999 Constitution, he emphasized on the need for plurality of the votes in both the state and the FCT. Particularly, he mentioned that the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, did not win any of it and this are matters that will be challenged at the tribunals.
Speaking generally on the outcome the 2023 election, he said Tinubu will suffer a problem of legitimacy.
According to him: “The elections were therefore not fair, it was not transparent, it was not genuine, it was not credible. As for the emergent president elect, he’s going to carry a very strong heavy burden of legitimacy and lack of it on his neck like an albatross. It doesn’t require even demonstration or protest on the street to drive home this point. The issue is a moral burden on him.”