As Nigeria waits for the results of the presidential election held on Saturday, February 25, Bashir Ahmad, an APC chieftain, has reacted to the party’s presidential result in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The results from the Federal Capital Territory for the 2023 presidential election elicited mixed reactions, as both the APC’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the PDP’s Atiku Abubakar failed to receive 25% of the
vote cast in the FCT.
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi, defeated Atiku and Tinubu by a wide margin in the FCT. He received 281,987 votes, while the APC received 90,902 votes and the PDP received 73,743 votes.
This has sparked a heated debate on social media as Nigerians debate whether the election will be rerun in accordance with the constitution, which states that for a candidate to become president, he or she must receive 25% of the votes cast in 2/3 of the 36 states and Abuja. The constitution also states that if none of the candidates meet this requirement, the election will be rerun.
In response to this development, Buhari’s aide, Bashir Ahmad, stated in a tweet in his official Twitter handle that the Abuja results would not be an issue for the APC if they could achieve the required 25% in two-thirds of the states.
Bashir Ahmad tweeted, “The fact that the APC did not receive 25% in the FCT will not be an issue; as long as our candidate receives the required 25% in two-thirds of the states for the federation and has the simple majority, he will be declared the winner by INEC.”
