PEPT: Senator Abe stresses need for amendment of Electoral Act

…Says INEC must stick to it’s guidelines
…Hails Tinubu’s victory at Tribunal, commends Judiciary

By Emmanuel Nlewedum, Port Harcourt

Following the judgement of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) that upheld the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the 2023 election, former representative of the Rivers South East Senatorial District at the 8th National Assembly, Senator Magnus Abe has said that the electoral act may need to be amended to avoid controversies in future elections.

Senator Abe stated this in a statement in Port Harcourt by his spokesperson, Dr. Parry Benson.

Abe who congratulated President Bola Tinubu over his victory at the Court on Wednesday, described it as a step towards actualising the president’s renewed hope agenda.

The former lawmaker while reacting to some of the issues thrown up by the judgement at the PEPC, argued that in the future, INEC should try to stick to its own guidelines, or ‘we should codify the rules into the Act’.

According to him, “Immediately after the 2023 Presidential election and the winner declared by INEC, the opposition slogan has been “All eyes on the Judiciary.

“On Wednesday, the Nigerian judiciary effectively discharged its commitment to the Nigerian Constitution and the Nigerian people by upholding the law.

“Expectedly the Presidential Election Tribunal upheld the election of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu as the democratically elected leader of our country. I say hearty congratulations to the President.

“On the issue of electronic transmission of results, yes, INEC did promise that all results would be electronically transmitted. Yes, all results were not electronically transmitted but every political party accepted results collated in their favour that were not electronically transmitted. It is thus ironic that the same parties will like the results of their opponents not electronically transmitted to be declared fraudulent.

“Our current legal electoral Act does not require electronic transmission for validity of any result if INEC for whatever reason(s) did not respect that commitment, can a Court of law on that basis invalidate votes lawfully cast and declared as valid, according to our law?

“The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal rightly held that a valid vote cannot be voided by administrative procedure, it can only be voided by law.

“The law did not require electronic transmission as a precondition for validity and so the failure by INEC to do so cannot invalidate a vote. That is the right legal position.

‘’But our Electoral Act may need to be amended to clarify that point. However, as of today, it is clear and the tribunal could not have said otherwise.”

He further pointed that there was no evidence that the failure to transmit results electronically favoured any political party more than the other, or that the act of non electronic transmission added or subtracted from the votes cast for any party.

On his own position on the issue of Abuja, the Senator maintained that the tribunal did not hold or declare Abuja as a state, because the status of Abuja was not the subject of the litigation, rather the issue was ‘status of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and wondered if Abuja residents have a veto power over our presidential elections?’

“What the tribunal said was that Abuja voters do not enjoy any special status constitutionally denied voters in other states, and so Abuja voters despite the special status of Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory cannot be said to have a veto over elections in our country that are denied to voters in other states.

“A candidate in counting his required twenty five percent in two thirds of the states will count Abuja like a state, that does not make Abuja a state.”

On the issue of the President’s educational qualifications, Abe said that all the personal allegations that were used to question Tinubu’s qualifications and legitimacy in this context were rightfully dismissed, stating that they were clearly irrelevant to the issue of who won the 2023 presidential elections.

“We have always maintained that there is nothing in those personal attacks except for politics which has now been put to rest.

“I congratulate the duly elected President of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as validated by the tribunal.”

He however, hailed the patriotism of the presidential candidates of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar and that of the Labour Party, Peter Obi in contesting the 2023 elections and pursuing their grievances within the constitutional provisions, stating that they deserve the respect of Nigerians.

He urged Atiku and Obi to join hands with the president to move the country forward.