FACT CHECK: Did President Tinubu Say There’ll Be Anarchy If Tribunal Nullifies His Electoral Victory?

FACT CHECK: Did President Tinubu Say There’ll Be Anarchy If Tribunal Nullifies His Electoral Victory?

By THECONSCIENCEng 

The Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Social Media, Dada Olusegun has debunked a trending report claiming that Tinubu’s lawyers told the presidential election tribunal that nullifying his 2023 electoral victory would lead to anarchy in Nigeria.

The aide in a post via his Twitter account said the report was nothing but fake news by those desperate to twist what was submitted before the tribunal.

It would be recalled that President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima gave reasons why the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) should dismiss petitions filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), and their presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi.

READ MORE: Now That The President is Hale And Hearty, Who healed Tinubu?

Tinubu and Shettima had insisted that claims that a candidate must score 25 per cent of votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to be declared president could have been a result of either misreading of the Constitution or mis-comprehension of the relevant provisions of the nation’s ground norm.

The submissions were part of their arguments in two sets of final written addresses filed on the petitions by Atiku/PDP and Obi/LP against the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

The two final addresses were filed on Friday by the Tinubu/Shettima legal team, led by Wole Olanipekun (SAN).

Describing both petitions as strange and hollow, Tinubu and Shettima argued that neither of the two sets of petitions provided relevant evidence to support the claims of the plaintiffs that the election was not held in compliance with relevant laws or that the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the APC were not qualified to contest the election.

READ MORE: FACT CHECK: Did President Tinubu Said There Will Be Anarchy If Tribunal Nullifies His Election Victory?

Some platforms further reported that as part of the submissions by Tinubu’s legal team before the tribunal, the President warned that his removal from office may cause anarchy in Nigeria.

However, Olusegun in his Twitter post on Sunday said his principal never said anything like that through his legal counsels.

He wrote: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s counsel didn’t argue nullifying the election would lead to anarchy.

“They argued that Abuja is the 37th state for electoral purposes and any other interpretation would lead to anarchy. But as usual the fake news machines are desperate to twist it.”