Inyang Ekwo, the presiding judge, on Tuesday, ordered the lawyer representing the five residents to pay the sum of N10million each to the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).
A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit filed by five residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, who sought to stop the inauguration of Bola Tinubu as president.
Inyang Ekwo, the presiding judge, on Tuesday, ordered the lawyer representing the five residents to pay the sum of N10million each to the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).
The question of having 25% of votes in the FCT, Abuja had become a constitutionally controversial issue before May 29’s Tinubu’s inauguration which had forced some persons to take the matter to court.
SaharaReporters had reported among several opinions that Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), had said a candidate must score 25 per cent in Abuja to be declared the winner of a presidential election.
“As far as I am concerned, you must also win 25% in FCT, but it's not for me to say. The tribunal can answer this question quite easily in one hour. It's not a difficult question,” the lawyer had stated.
This came as Nigerians were struggling to interpret Section 133 (1) (b) of the Nigerian Constitution, which said a candidate can only be declared president if “he 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.”
But the lawyer insisted that the Constitution separated FCT entirely in the instance under discussion.
He further argued that with what was going on, the political atmosphere in the country had become unnecessarily charged.
The lawyer said that if only the right thing could be done—which is to resolve the election petition matter—then normalcy would be restored.