President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for a review of Section 84 (12) of the recently signed Electoral Act 2022, may have suffered a setback as a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Monday, restrained the National Assembly from tampering with the amended Electoral Act 2022.
The restraining order followed a motion ex-parte that was brought before the court by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The court, in the ruling delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, specifically barred all the Defendants in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/247/2022, from removing section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act or preventing it from being implemented for the purpose of the 2023 general elections.
Cited as Defendants in the suit are; the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Clerk of National Assembly, Senate Leader, House of Representatives Leader and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Others are; Deputy Senate President, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Deputy Senate Leader and Deputy Leader of the House of Representatives.
It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had before he signed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2022 into law, asked the National Assembly to expunge section 84 (12) of the Act, which he argued would disenfranchise serving political appointees.
The section particularly made it mandatory that political office holders must firstly resign from office before they could vie for any elective position.
It reads: “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.”
Meanwhile, PDP, in the substantive suit it filed through its team of lawyers led by Chief Ogwu Onoja, SAN, challenged the legality or otherwise of the National Assembly tinkering with the Electoral Act, after it had been signed into law by the President.
The PDP, in an affidavit of urgency attached to the motion ex-parte, said there was an urgent need for the court to bar the Defendants from taking any step to accede to President Buhari’s request, pending the determination of the suit.
While granting the PDP prayer, Justice Ekwo, who fixed March 21 for hearing of the suit, equally ordered PDP to serve the order as well as all the relevant processes on all the Defendants.
The PDP further wants the court to hold that Section 84 (12) is constitutional and liable to be enforced by INEC which is the 8th Defendant in the suit.
It also applied for an order of mandatory injunction compelling INEC to put into immediate effect the Electoral Act, including Section 84 (12).
