By John Ikani
An Umuahia division of the Federal High Court has declared invalid and unconstitutional section 84(12) of the amended Electoral Act.
Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act provides that, “No political appointee at any level shall be a 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.”
Mr Nduka Edede, a Lawyer and Chieftain of Action Alliance (AA) party, had approached the court, in the suit that had the Attorney General of the Federation as the Defendant.
The plaintiff had asked the court to determine whether Section 84(12), when read together with Sections 66(1)(f) 107(1)(f)(137(1)(f) and 182(1)(f) of the 1999 Constitution, was not inconsistent.
The court in the suit, marked FHC/UM/CS/26/2022, agreed with the submissions, and ordered that Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act was inconsistent with the rights of Nigerian citizens.
In her ruling, Justice Evelyn Anyadike ordered the Attorney General of the Federation to delete the said section from the amended electoral act.
According to the judge, the section is in violation of the clear provisions of the constitution.
Anyadike held that the said sections, already stipulated that appointees of government seeking to contest elections were only to resign, at least 30 days to the date of the election.
She held that any other law that mandated such appointees to resign or leave office at any time before that, was unconstitutional, invalid, illegal null and void, “to the extent of its inconsistency to the clear provisions of the Constitution”.
President Muhammadu Buhari had assented to the electoral act amendment bill on February 25.
The President had while signing the amended Electoral Act, argued that “Section 84 (12) constitutes a disenfranchisement of serving political office holders from voting or being voted for at conventions or congresses of any political party, for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election in cases where it holds earlier than 30 days to the national election”.
However, the Senate refused to consider the president’s request and threw out the bill seeking the amendment of the section, with lawmakers stressing that an amendment would be going against the civil service norms and would be injurious to the well-being of the society.
Addressing journalists, counsel to the plaintiff, Emeka Ozoani (SAN), said by this judgment, the National Assembly was not required to further make any amendments to the section.
According to him, “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.
“It has provided a congenial atmosphere for politicking and political space in 2023”.
