Electoral Act: Delete Section 84(12), Court Tells AGF

The Federal High Court sitting in Umahia has ordered the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami to immediately delete Section 84(12) of the newly amended Electoral Act which President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier asked the National Assembly to take out.

Section 84 (12) stated: “No political appointee at any level shall be voting delegate or be voted for at the Convention or Congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.”

The court, on Friday, described the section as unconstitutional, illegal, invalid, void and of no importance, ordering that it should be deleted because it contradicts the constitution.

The judgement delivered by Justice Evelyn Anyadike, brought justifies Buhari’s position that the section violates the rights of appointees.

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Justice Anyadike in the Suit marked FHC/UM/CS/26/2022 held that Sections 66(1)(f), 107(1)(f), 137(1)(f) and 182(1)(f) of the 1999 Constitution already stipulated that appointees of government seeking to contest elections were only to resign at least 30 days to the date of the election and that any other law that mandated such appointees to resign or leave office at any time before that was unconstitutional.

Counsel to the Plaintiff Emeka Ozoani, SAN while addressing newsmen stated that by this judgment, the National Assembly is not required to further make any amendments to the section as the import of this judgment is that Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act is no longer in existence or part of the Electoral Act. The Judge thereafter ordered the Attorney General of the Federation to forthwith delete the said Subsection 12 of Section 84 from the body of the Electoral Act, 2022.