The judgement of a three-man panel of justices led by Justice Hamma Akawu Barka has been vacated by the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, over a void in the provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022, which disregarded Mr. Nduka Edede decision to institute the verdict.
The appellant Court, noted that Edede had failed to establish the cause of action that warranted him to approach the court on the issue citing that the plaintiff couldn’t prove how he was affected by the section of the newly amended Electoral Act.
The appellate Court upheld that the said provision of the Electoral law was unconstitutional because it is in breach of Section 42 (1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, pointing out that a class of Nigerian citizens would be denied their rights to participate in election.
The judgment followed an appeal marked: CA/OW/87/2022, which was filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The high Court in Umuahia had establish in March the striking out of section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022 ordering that it should be deleted by the Attorney-General of the Federation for being inconsistent with the Constitution, a compliance was thereafter followed by the the AGF, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, barely 24 hours after the judgement was pronounced.
President Muhammadu Buhari had some reservations about the Electoral Act Amendment Bill where some portion of the Electoral law had some discriminatory contents which specified that the Electoral Act, 2022 made it compulsory that political office holders must first resign before he/she 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.”
GLOBETELLY 