LP Vice-Presidential Candidate Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.
Questioning the constitutionality of swearing in Nigeria’s President-elect, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on May 29, 2023, the Vice-Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed, has submitted that Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, failed to satisfy the constitutional requirements for the office.
Consequent upon the February 25, 2023, Presidential Election, Tinubu had been declared the winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 1, 2023.
However, Baba-Ahmed, who made a live appearance Wednesday on Channels Television’s Politics Today, argued that the APC failed to satisfy the requirements of Section 134 (2)(a) and (b) of the constitution for election to the office of the President.
According to the provisions of that section, the rightful winner is one who “has the highest number of votes cast at the election” and “has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election each of at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja”.
In the estimation of the LP Vice-Presidential Candidate, therefore, going ahead with Tinubu’s inauguration is unconstitutional.
“Mr. President, do not hold that inauguration. CJN (Chief Justice of Nigeria), Your Lordship, do not partake in unconstitutionality,” Baba-Ahmed said.
He posited that swearing in a ticket that has not met the requirements of the constitution is ending democracy.
He added: “That is my interpretation and that is indeed a correct interpretation,” Baba-Ahmed added. You cannot swear [in] people who have not met the constitutional requirements; you can’t do that.
“If you do it, you have done something unlawful, something unconstitutional. I’m not taking risks with my safety and with my life. It was more extreme for [INEC Chairman, Mahmood] Yakubu to issue that certificate; it was reckless. He’s putting all our lives in danger.”
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