*Says INEC shouldn’t have declared Tinubu Winner having failed to score 25% in FCT

The former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), has said that before a candidate can be declared winner in a presidential election, that candidate must score 25 per cent of the votes cast in the election in 2/3 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Aondoakaa made this known during an Interview with Arise news where he maintained that this requirement had been the law and has not changed since the pronouncement of the Supreme Court in 2008.

Recall, Peter Obi scored 281,987 votes or 62 percent of the total votes cast in the FCT, while Bola Tinubu scored 90,902 or 20 per cent. On his part, Atiku Abubakar scored 73,743 votes, or 16 per cent of the votes from Abuja.

Speaking about the outcome of the elections, Aondoakka said that the 1999 Constitution was clear when it stated the criteria to win an election.

He said: “A candidate for an election to the Office of President shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being more than two candidates for the election: (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states in the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

“The Constitution says you must get 25 per cent in 24 states, and in FCT, Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not score 25 per cent in the FCT, and since he didn’t score 25 per cent in the FCT, he should not have been declared president as INEC wrongly did,” he said.

While claiming that the February 25 presidential election was not free, fair, and credible, Aondoakaa pointed out that Tinubu would continue to “carry a very heavy, strong burden of legitimacy and lack of it on his neck like an albatross; it doesn’t require demonstration or protest on the street; the issue is a moral burden on him.”