President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has issued a stern warning to the Presidential elections tribunal that removing him as president over failure to score 25% in Abuja may cause chaos in Nigeria.

Admitting his failure to score the required 25 per cent of vote in Abuja, he stated that it was insufficient to overturn his victory as declared by the INEC.

The president lawyers led by Wole Olanipekun said, “Any other interpretation different from this will lead to absurdity, chaos, anarchy and alteration of the very intention of the legislature.”

The lawyers were specifically addressing a section of the Nigerian Constitution that said a presidential candidate must score 25 per cent of votes in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, or Abuja.

Tinubu’s team said, “Our courts have always adopted the purposeful approach to the interpretation of our Constitution, as exemplified in a host of decisions.

Even if there was no election in one State (including the FCT), or even if the election of a State/States (including the FCT) is/are voided, the entire election cannot be voided or canceled.

“In concluding our arguments on this issue, we urge the court to hold that any election where the electorate exercise their plebiscite, there is neither a ‘royal’ ballot nor ‘royal’ voter; and that residents of the FCT do not have any special voting right over residents of any other State of the federation, in a manner similar to the concepts of preferential shareholding in Company Law.

We urge this court to resolve this issue against the petitioners and in favour of the respondent,” the lawyers said.

In the upcoming weeks, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi are expected to submit their respective responses to the arguments put up by Tinubu’s lawyers. The tribunal, which is made up of a panel of justices from the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, will then finalize its deliberations and issue its ruling.