A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and legal luminary, Femi Falana has contended that under the newly amended Electoral Act, 2022, Senate President, Ahmed Lawsan, and former Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio risk two years imprisonment for double nomination in the recently concluded primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In an ARISE television interview, Femi Falana, SAN, also expressed worry at the lack-lustre attitude of the political leadership in the country to obey simple laws.
According to him, Section 115(D) of the Electoral Act, 2022, which Senate President Lawan helped package “has criminalised double nomination.
He said, “So, you can’t say that you took part in the presidential primary and you took part in the senatorial primary at the same time. Under that section of the law, double nomination attracts two years imprisonment.”
He continued “Again, I will expect INEC to draw the attention of the APC to the provision of the law that ‘you’re playing with fire’”.
Falana’s position came against the background of the moves by the APC leadership to seek to ensure that the names of Lawan and Akpabio are forwarded as senatorial candidates in Akwa Ibom and Yobe State.
Section 115(D), in respect of nomination offences, states that it is an offence when “a person…signs a nomination paper or result form as a candidate in more than one constituency at the same election”.
