Court Adjourns Hearing In PDP’s Suit Against Buhari On Electoral Act Till May 24

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Monday, fixed May 24, 2022, for a definite hearing in a suit filed against President Muhammadu Buhari by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the controversial Section 84 (11)  and (12) of the Electoral Act 2022.

Justice Inyang Ekwo fixed the new date on Monday to enable Buhari and PDP to address him on the effect of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division judgment which declared the contentious Section 84 (12) as unconstitutional, null and void.

The Judge on his own raised the issue on the ground that the PDP’S suit bothers on the same section of the law in which a higher court had made a pronouncement that would bind a lower court.

Counsel to the PDP, Joseph Daudu (SAN) made attempts to draw a distinction between the two matters and why the Judge should proceed to hear the PDP’s suit but, Oladipupo Okpeseyi (SAN), representing Buhari and AGF, disagreed with the PDP lawyer, insisting that there was no difference between the Umuahia suit and that of PDP because the two are on the same Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act.

Following the disagreement, the trial judge held that all parties in the matter shall address him on May 24 on whether to abide by the Court of Appeal decision or proceed with the one before him.

Section 84 ( 12) of the Electoral Act orders all political appointees to resign from their positions 30 days before the conduct of the primary election that would produce candidates for elective offices in the 2023 general elections.

The PDP had, in a suit,  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 party wants the court to restrain the National Assembly from giving effect to President Buhari’s request to remove Section 84 (12) from the Electoral Act or take any step that will make the provision inoperative.

It argued that President Buhari, having assented to the Bill on February 25, 2022, cannot give any directive to the National Assembly to take immediate steps to remove the section or any section of the Act on any ground whatsoever.

The court, in a ruling on an exparte motion filed by the PDP, 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; the 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 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.

President Buhari, in a counter-affidavit to the suit, told the Court sitting in Abuja, that the contentious section of the Electoral Act, would disenfranchise political appointees and prevent them from engaging in the electoral process in the exercise of their inalienable rights in a participatory democracy.