The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami has directed the immediate implementation of Friday’s judgment of the Federal High Court Umuahia which declared section 84 (12) of the recently signed electoral act unconstitutional
The section 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.”
A statement from the office of the attorney general says the directive is to “give effect to the Court judgment in line with the dictates of the law and the spirit of the judgment”
Consequently, Malami has ordered that the provision be deleted from the Act and gazetted. “The judgment of the Court will be recognized by the Government printers in printing the Electoral Act.
The Act will be gazetted factoring the effect of the judgment into consideration and deleting the constitutionally offensive provision accordingly”.
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Even though there is a possibility of appeal against Justice Evelyn Anyadike’s decision, the Attorney General insists “the provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022 is not part of our law and will be so treated accordingly”.
Friday’s judgment comes barely two weeks after Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Abuja division of the same Federal High Court issued an injunction restraining the National Assembly from tampering with the electoral act or deleting section 84(12) after it was signed by the president
The senate had subsequently voted against committing the bill for review last Wednesday.
In directing immediate compliance with the Umuahia Federal High Court judgement, the country’s chief law officer claims he is acting in line with the country’s statute. “Chapter 7, Part 4, Section 287 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) on enforcement of decisions makes it a point of duty and obligation on all authorities and persons to have the judgment of the federal High Court, among others, to be enforced”.
Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe
