According to a witness from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, both Atiku and President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are ineligible to be declared as president because they failed to obtain 25 percent of the total votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Among the top three candidates in the March 2023 presidential elections, only Peter Obi, the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, secured over 25 percent of the votes in the FCT during the February 25 election.

During cross-examination on June 5, the witness, represented by Mohammed Aliyu, the counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), affirmed that the 25 percent requirement was a mandatory condition for declaring someone as president.

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When questioned if this was his personal opinion, the witness clarified that it was based on the constitutional provision.

In response to queries about whether their candidate achieved the necessary result in the FCT, the witness admitted that “My candidate did not score 25 percent of votes in the FCT according to the purported result published by INEC.”