Declares section unconstitutional, invalid illegal
The Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia yesterday struck down Section 84(12) of the newly amended Electoral Act which President Muhammadu Buhari had written to the National Assembly requesting them to delete.
The court, in a judgment delivered by Justice Evelyn Anyadike, held that the section was unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void and of no effect whatsoever and ought to be struck down as it cannot stand when it is in violation of the clear provisions of the Constitution.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had, while signing the amended Electoral Act, urged the National Assembly to delete the provision as it violated Constitution and breached the rights of government appointees.
The President further wrote a letter to both Chambers of the National Assembly seeking amendment by way of deleting the provision an amendment the Senate rejected in plenary.
Justice Anyadike, in the suit, 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, invalid, illegal, null and void to the extent of its inconsistency to the clear provisions of the Constitution.
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 Act.
The Judge thereafter ordered the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to forthwith delete the said Sub-section 12 of Section 84 from the body of the Electoral Act, 2022.
In a swift reaction, the Federal Government, through AFG Malami, said the court judgment will go into effect.
The AGF made the Federal Governments position known through an issued press statement
yesterday night, by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu.
Malami noted that the judgment will be recognised by the government printers ‘in printing the Electoral Act’, saying, “The Act will be gazetted, factoring the effect of the judgment into consideration and deleting the constitutionally offensive provision accordingly.
The provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022 is not part of our law and will be treated accordingly, he stated.
