May 11, (THEWILL) – The Court of Appeal has set aside the judgement of the Federal High Court in Umuahia, which voided the provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022.
The judgement was on the appeal marked: CA/OW/87/2022 filed by the PDP.
The Abia court had declared the section as illegal and a violation of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
This section states that “No political appointees 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.”
The section bars political appointees such as ministers, commissioners, special advisers, personal assistants in federal and state governments from voting as delegate or being voted for in a political party primary.
But in a judgement on Wednesday in Abuja, a three-member panel of the court, headed by Justice Hamma Akawu Barka, held that the Federal High Court, Umuahia, had no jurisdiction to have entertained the case, because the plaintiff, Nduka Edede, lacked the locus standi to have filed the suit in the first place.
The appellate court added that Edede did not establish any cause of action to have warranted his approaching the court on the issue, because he did not establish that he was directly affected by the provision.
The Court of Appeal struck out the suit marked: FHC/UM/CS/26/2022, which Edede filed before the Umuahia court.
While determining the appeal on the merit, the appellate court, however, held that the provision is unconstitutional, because it violates Section 42 (1)(a) of the Constitution and denied a class of Nigerian citizens their right to participate in election.
