Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), a former justice minister and attorney general of the federation (AGF), has stated once more that a candidate must win 25% of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of the 36 states and the federal capital territory (FCT) of Abuja in order to be declared the winner of a presidential election in Nigeria.
Aondoakaa emphasised that since the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2008, this condition has been in existence for a very long time and has not been altered. He claimed that the 1999 Constitution was unambiguous in this regard regarding election outcomes.
According to the results of the 2019 Nigerian presidential election, Peter Obi received 62% of the 90,902 votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), compared to Bola Tinubu’s 20%. In Abuja, Atiku Abubakar received 73,743 votes, or 16% of all ballots cast.
Aondoakaa contends that Tinubu should not have been elected president by INEC because he did not meet the constitutional criteria of receiving 25% of the vote in the FCT.
INEC was condemned by Aondoakaa for incorrectly naming Tinubu the winner of the presidential election. In order to guarantee that a candidate has widespread popularity and support throughout the nation, he underlined the importance of the constitutional requirement that they receive 25% of the vote in at least two-thirds of the states and the FCT. In order to prevent uncertainty or problems around the election results, Aondoakaa encouraged INEC to abide by the constitutional criteria in future elections.
