THE Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party – PDP, Atiku Abubakar did not meet the constitutional requirements to be declared winner of the February 25 election, the Independent National Electoral Commission – INEC has said.
The commission said the PDP flag bearer failed to score, at least, one-quarter of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and as such could not have been declared the winner.
INEC backed its claim, as it urged the Presidential Election Petition Court to dismiss the petition by Atiku and his party, the PDP.
The electoral body also said that the election was conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 and was not marred by any corrupt practices, contrary to claim by the petitioners.
INEC added that the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu validly won the election, polling 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku who scored 6,984,520 and Peter Obi of the Labour Party who got 6,101,533. Atiku and Tinubu won 12 states each while Obi won 11 states and the FCT.
INEC also told the court that the FCT is not accorded any special status in the constitution as being erroneously portrayed by some political parties and candidates who lost the election.
It said that Tinubu met all the legal requirements to be announced as the winner.