A Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia the Abia State capital has declared unconstitutional Section 84(12) of the newly amended Electoral Act.
The court presided over by Justice Evelyn Anyadike while delivering
judgement Friday held that the section is in violation of a provision in
the 1999 Constitution as amended and should therefore be deleted.
The section says 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.
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had while
signing the amended Electoral Act called the attention of the National
Assembly to amend the section as it violates the Constitution and
breached the rights of political appointees.
The Presiding judge holds that the Constitution has 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 is unconstitutional, invalid, illegal null and void to the extent
of its inconsistency to the clear provisions of the Constitution.
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