Electoral Act: Reps Ask AGF Malami To ‘Hold Action’ On Deletion Of Section 84 (12)

The House of Representatives has asked the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to “hold action” on his plan to comply with the judgment of the Federal High Court, Umuahia, authorizing him to delete a section of the Electoral Act 2022.

This comes as the Green Chamber resolved on Wednesday to appeal the judgment delivered by Justice Evelyn Anyadike, who struck down section 84 (12) of the Act on the grounds that it was “unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void and of no effect whatsoever.”

According to Justice Anyadike, the section is in conflict with the rights of the citizens guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.

The contentious section stipulates 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.”

But at Wednesday’s plenary, the lawmakers asked AGF Malami to “hold action on the issue until all appeal processes are concluded”.

Earlier, Malami had said that the Federal Government would enforce the court judgment by gazetting the Electoral Act without including the “offensive provision” in it.

In a statement by his spokesperson, Umar Gwandu, the AGF had said his office will “give effect to the court judgment in line with the dictates of the law and the spirit of the judgment.”

According to him, “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 make 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,” he said.

Meanwhile, at the Wednesday plenary, the House of Representatives also passed a resolution to report Justice Anyadike to the National Judicial Council (NJC) over her nullification of Section 84 (12) of the Act.