The Supreme Court of Nigeria has upheld the decision of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), which ruled that Abuja/FCT should be treated as the 37th state in Nigeria for the purposes of calculating the two-thirds majority required for a presidential candidate to be declared the winner of an election. This verdict was delivered during the hearing of appeals against the victory of Bola Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election.
Justice John Okoro, in delivering the ruling, cited Section 299 of the Nigerian Constitution, which explicitly states that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) should be considered one of the states in the calculation of two-thirds of the states of the Federation for the purpose of declaring a presidential candidate duly elected.
Justice Okoro clarified that if a presidential candidate secures 25% (one-quarter) of the vote in two-thirds of the 37 states, including the FCT, that candidate should be considered duly elected, even if they fail to secure 35% of the votes in the federal capital territory, Abuja.
He also emphasized that the Tribunal’s decision was in line with the provisions of the Constitution and that it ensures that residents of Abuja/FCT have the same voting rights as residents of other states in the Federation.
As a result, the court dismissed the petition by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, which had sought to require a 25% vote threshold in Abuja to win the presidential election.
