Electoral Act: Court Orders AG to Remove Section 84 (12)

 A Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State has ordered the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) to immediately delete Section 84 (12) of the amended new electoral act.

The order was issued on Friday by the presiding judge Justice Evelyn Anyadike who held that the Section was unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void and of no effect whatsoever and cannot stand, as it violates the clear provisions of the Constitution.

According to the Section, “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 nomination of candidates for any election.”

In the suit designated FHC/UM/CS/26/2022, Justice Anyadike further stated 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.