A purported breaking news has circulated online, claiming that the Supreme Court has ruled that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is the 37th state in Nigeria.
The post, shared by a verified Twitter user, @StFreakingKezy, states that the Supreme Court’s position shows that 25% is not required in the FCT to win the presidential election.
As of when the post was retrieved from Twitter, it has garnered over 466,000 views, 1,730 likes, and 439 retweets since May 12, 2023, when it was posted.
Claim: Supreme Court’s position shows that 25% is not required in the FCT to win the presidential election
Verification
The CDD Election War Room can confirm that the Presidential Election Petition Court held an inaugural sitting on May 8, 2023, as part of the process to address the litigations before it, which include the 25 per cent vote quota in Abuja for a candidate to be declared and returned as the president-elect.
Aggrieved opposition parties had approached the presidential election petition tribunal after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the February 25 poll.
As of the time of filing this fact-check, the tribunal process is still ongoing at the Court of Appeal and is at its pre-hearing stage with no judgement delivered yet. Therefore, until the members of the tribunal deliver their final judgement that dissatisfied parties can further approach the Supreme Court to upturn the decision of the court. The Supreme Court’s decision is, however, final.
We also checked to verify the claim and found no credible report stating that the Supreme Court has ruled over the vote requirement in the FCT, which is part of the issues that have since trailed the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.
Verdict: FALSE
The CDD Election War Room can confirm that the presidential election tribunal process is still at the Appeal Court and in its pre-hearing stage. We also found no credible report stating that the Supreme Court has ruled against a 25% requirement in the FCT to win Nigeria’s presidential election.
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