What Will Happen If You Remove Me As Nigeria President- Tinubu Warns Tribunal

Tinubu has warned the Tribunal against removing him as Nigeria’s President.

Newsone reports that President Bola Tinubu has issued a warning about the potential consequences of nullifying the February 25 presidential election that declared him as the winner. and President of Nigeria.

This online news platform understands that President Tinubu warned that such a decision, based on his failure to secure 25% of the lawful votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), could result in absurdity, chaos, anarchy, and the distortion of the legislature’s original intent.

President Tinubu presented his arguments in a final written address to the Presidential Election Petition Court (PREPEC), responding to two petitions filed by candidates from the Labour Party (LP) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the validity of his victory. He claimed that the petitions raised novel issues and were not in line with the country’s electoral laws.

The President admitted his failure to score 25 percent of votes cast in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital but said it was insufficient to overturn his victory as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

“Any other interpretation different from this will lead to absurdity, chaos, anarchy, and alteration of the very intention of the legislature,” Tinubu’s lawyers led by Wole Olanipekun said in their final defence statement to the court.

The lawyers to the President were specifically addressing a section of the Nigerian Constitution that said a presidential candidate must score 25 percent of votes in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, or Abuja.

Newsone Nigeria reports that public commentary has been rife about the intention of the clause after Mr Tinubu won the highest number of votes in a three-way presidential race in February but failed to score 25 per cent in the FCT.

President Tinubu’s team said courts have always been careful about giving extreme interpretation of the Constitution that could spark chaos.

“Our courts have always adopted the purposeful approach to the interpretation of our Constitution, as exemplified in a host of decisions,” the team said.

They also said Mr Tinubu would still have won the election even if he didn’t score anything in Abuja and one other state, although this was not the argument of petitions, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of Labour Party.

“Even if there was no election in one State (including the FCT), or even if the election of a State/States (including the FCT) is/are voided, the entire election cannot be voided or canceled.

“In concluding our arguments on this issue, we urge the court to hold that any election where the electorate exercise their plebiscite, there is neither a ‘royal’ ballot nor ‘royal’ voter; and that residents of the FCT do not have any special voting right over residents of any other State of the federation, in a manner similar to the concepts of preferential shareholding in Company Law.

“We urge this court to resolve this issue against the petitioners and in favour of the respondent,” the lawyers said.