Malami: FG’ll delete Section 84(12) of amended Electoral Act

Abubakar Malami

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) has stated that the provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022 will be deleted.

The minister spoke in reaction to the judgement of the Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, which on Friday nullified Section 84(12) of the newly amended Electoral Act.

The court held that the subsection was a violation of the provisions of the Constitution.

Malami’s spokesman, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, in a statement made available to The Star on Friday, said with the judgement, the constitutionally offensive provision will be deleted accordingly.

He said: “The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice will accordingly give effect to the court judgement in line with the dictates of the law and the spirit of the judgement.

“The judgement 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 judgement 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 so treated accordingly.

“This is in line with the dictates of chapter 7, Part 4, Section 287 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) on enforcement of decisions that 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.”

The Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, in a judgement delivered by Justice Evelyn Anyadike, held that the section was unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void and of no effect whatsoever, saying it ought to have been struck out.

Mr. Nduka Edede, a lawyer and chieftain of Action Alliance (AA), 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.

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”.

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.

President Muhammadu Buhari, had while signing the amended Electoral Act, urged the National Assembly to delete the provision, as it violated the Constitution and breached the rights of government appointees.

The President had further written a letter to both chambers of the National Assembly, seeking amendment, by way of deleting the provision, an amendment the Senate rejected in plenary.

The Star