PEPC: Consider FCT as 37th state for purpose of presidential election, Tinubu tells Court

<p>President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday asked the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) sitting in Abuja to consider the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja as the 37th state of the federation for the purpose of the February 25 presidential election.</p>, <p>Adopting his final written address in the petition filed by Atiku and his party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging his election, Tinubu, through his lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) urged the court to read the constitution collectively, particularly as it relates to FCT and submitted that that FCT, is the 37th state for purpose of the presidential election.</p>, <p>Referring to Section 134(2)(b) of the constitution which provides that a candidate contesting for post of president must score not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in at least two-third of all the states in the federation and FCT in Abuja, Olanipekun said, Tinubu won one-third of two-third votes in FCT which qualifies him to be declared president.</p>, <p>The senior lawyer also submitted that there is a difference between transfer and transmission and added that I-Rev plays no role in the collation of election results.</p>, <p>According to Olanipekun, it would be for public interest that the court would not set aside the decision of the electorate and urged the court to dismiss the petition.</p>, <p>Counsel to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), said the petitioners failed to discharge the burden of proof required of them by law.</p>, <p>He said the major plight of the petitioners is the non-compliance in the use of technological devices, which was a major innovation in the 2022 Electoral Act.</p>, <p>The application, he said, entails use of devices for authentication and transmission of election results from polling units to I-Rev and urged the court to hold that the innovation is effective and secured as provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS).</p>, <p>He said the evidence before the court shows clearly th