NASS Floors Buhari As Supreme Court Says President Has No Power To Challenge Electoral Act

The Supreme Court on Friday declared that President Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami SAN, “has no power to request or compel the national assembly to amend any part of the Act of the National Assembly in which he has participated in its making.”

The apex court held so in view of FG’s prayers against Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act which bars political appointees from voting or being voted for, which was challenged by the federal government.

THE WHISTLER reported that FG had approached the apex court insisting that the section in question contravenes the voting rights of all Nigerians as enshrined in Sections 137, 147 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

But NASS, Rivers State and the NBA disagreed and urged the Supreme Court to dismiss FG’s suit for having no right to appear before the court and because the FG must not be allowed to assume jurisdiction in lawmaking which is the exclusive powers of the National Assembly.

On Friday, a seven-man panel of the court , led by Musa Dattijo-Muhammad, struck out the suit for being an abuse of court process.

“There is no provision in the constitution that vests the president the power to challenge the constitutionality or desirability of a legislation after he has assented or denied his assent. In this case, the president gave his assent.

“This suit cannot be entertained by this court under section 1(1) (a) of the Additional Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court Act.”