Nigeria: Court Declares Section 84(12) of Amended Electoral Act Illegal, Orders AGF Malami to Delete It

By Derrick Bangura

A Federal High Court in Umuahia today struck down Section 84(12) of Nigeria’s newly amended Electoral Act, which President Muhammadu Buhari had requested be deleted in a letter to the National Assembly.

In a decision written by Justice Evelyn Anyadike, the court ruled that the section was unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void, and of no effect, and that it should be struck down because it violated the Constitution’s clear provisions.
It would be recalled that 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 further wrote a letter to both Chambers of the National Assembly seeking amendment by way of deleting the provision an amendment the Senate rejected in plenary.

Justice Anyadike in the Suit marked FHC/UM/CS/26/2022 held 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.

Counsel to the Plaintiff Emeka Ozoani, SAN while addressing newsmen stated that by this judgment, the National Assembly is not required to further make any amendments to the section as the import of this judgment is that Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act is no longer in existence or part of the Electoral Act. 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.