The Court of Appeal has ordered the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, and others to stay the execution of the Federal High Court ruling that annulled Article 84 (12) of the newly amended Electoral Law.
Mr. Malami, shortly after the Federal High Court of Umuahia, Abia State, handed down its verdict on March 22, quashed possible appeals, promising to enforce the verdict promptly.
But the Owerri Division of the Court of Appeal has now issued an order staying enforcement of the High Court’s decision. The newspaper La Nación reports
According to the newspaper, a three-member panel of appeals court headed by Rita Pemu made the order in a ruling that granted a request from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join as a party to the appeal against the sentence of March 18, 2022 of the Federal High Court.
The court of appeal, in its ruling, ordered the parties to refrain from carrying out acts likely to frustrate the pending appeal against the contested ruling.
“Upon reading this application filed on 3-23-2022 with an affidavit of support sworn by John Eronini on the same date and after hearing DC Denwigwe SAN for the applicant and Chief Emeka Ozoani SAN for the 1st respondent, for the present the order is granted. as follows;
“The Applicant (PDP) is hereby granted permission to appeal as an interested party in this resource CA/OW/87/2022.
“Due to the demands of this resource and its Constitutional coloration, it is necessary to hear this matter quickly.
Accordingly, Appellant is hereby given until Tuesday, April 12, 2022, to file its Notice of Appeal and the parties must file their respective pleadings within three days of the date of delivery of the Notice. and the appeal file in the respondents.
“The appellant will have three more days to present his answer.
“The parties must desist from taking any action to frustrate the appeal hearing.
“The matter is postponed for May 4, 2022, for the appeal hearing.
“New notice of hearing to be issued from the 2nd to the 12th defendants”.
Apart from the PDP, the National Assembly had also promised to appeal against the verdict.
Another lawsuit on the matter is still pending in the Federal High Court in Abuja. The judge, Inyang Ekwo, set April 28 for the hearing of the case.
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On March 18, the federal court division in Umuahia, Abia state, struck down Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Law, a decision that dovetails well with President Muhammadu Buhari’s earlier protest against the controversial legal provision.
The new legal provision prohibited political appointees from voting as delegates at party conventions or congresses for the election or nomination of candidates.
In her verdict, the judge, Evelyn Anyadike, held that the section was “unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void and without effect” and ordered the AGF, which was the only defendant in the lawsuit, to “remove from that section immediately. subsection 12 of article 84 of the body of the Electoral Law of 2022.”
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She anchored her decision on the basis that the provision conflicted with the constitutional provision that already gives political appointees who intend to participate in an election to resign at least 30 days before the election.
It held that sections 66(1)(f), 107(1)(f), 137(1)(f), and 182(1)(f) of the 1999 Constitution already provided that government appointees who seeking to participate in the elections can only resign at least 30 days before the elections.
Many lawyers have criticized this reasoning, arguing that political appointees do not fall within the category of people who are required by the constitution to resign at least 30 days before the election.
Malami was singled out as the sole defendant in the lawsuit brought by Nduka Edede, a member of the Action Alliance (AA), a fringe political party in Nigeria.
The AGF has shown extraordinary interest in securing the repeal of section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, which would have forced him out of office early to realize what is believed to be his ambition to contest the governorship of 2023. elections in the state of Kebbi, his home state.
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