CLAIM: A Twitter user urged supporters of Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to vote overwhelmingly in Abuja. The claimant stated that the presidential candidates of APC’s Bola Tinubu and PDP’s Atiku Abubakar would not be declared president if they failed to get 25% in the FCT.
VERDICT: Misleading
FINDING: Section 133 of the Nigerian Constitution stipulates that a presidential candidate shall be deemed to have been duly elected if he has a majority of votes cast and “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 law does not state winning 25% of votes in Abuja is a condition for winning the presidential election. Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, said in an interview on Channels TV: “You don’t have to win the FCT; if you meet the requirement, that is two-thirds of the majority of states in the country.” He said courts have ruled that the FCT should be treated as a state.
