HUMAN rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has stated that votes cast throughout Nigeria are equal and that Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, has been interpreted as the 37th state of the union.
He was making a statement in response to the 2023 presidential election, Section 134 of the 1999 Constitution which has come under scrutiny.
Falana, however, stated on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics that he will not be making a firm statement on the matter at this time because it has developed into a serious legal matter that is currently pending in court, noting that court rulings on Abuja’s status already exist.
“I had expressed an opinion on section 134 of the Constitution on the 23rd of January this year – that is about a month before the presidential election. On that occasion, I expressed a legal opinion and that is why I was very hesitant to join the bandwagon when lawyers started to give political interpretations of that section.
“I did state that there is no electoral college in Nigeria and therefore the votes cast or recorded in any part of the country are equal. Section 134 of the Constitution specifically requires a winner of a presidential election to meet certain requirements. The first one is to score the majority of lawful votes and the second is territorial spread, a two-thirds majority of the states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“And since the FCT has been interpreted to be a 37th state in Nigeria for the purpose of the constitution I didn’t see any controversy at the material time and that was when I expressed my opinion.
“But now that it has become a serious legal issue and the matter is now pending in court, I am very reluctant to speak definitively on the section because there are decisions of the court on the status of Abuja,” Falana said.
The failure of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was declared the winner of the February 25 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to receive 25% of the vote in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has raised questions about how that provision of the Constitution should be interpreted.
The Presidential Election Tribunal has received petitions from both and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party who emerged second and Peter Obi of the Labour Party who came third contesting Tinubu’s designation as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
