Checkout Magazine has learnt that the National Assembly may suspend the ongoing amendment to the Electoral Act, 2022 based on the request of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Recall that the President had asked the federal parliament to delete Section 84(14) of the new electoral law.
It was learnt that the leaders of the National Assembly would study the ruling of a Federal High Court, Abuja, stopping Buhari; the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN); and the parliament from altering the newly amended Electoral Act, 2022.
Buhari had last week conveyed his reservation about the Electoral Act, 2022 to the National Assembly.
Although the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, read Buhari’s cover letter on the Electoral Act, 2022 (Amendment) Bill last Tuesday, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, is yet to read the President’s letter.
Buhari, while assenting to the Electoral Act 2010 (Amendment) Bill at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on February 25, highlighted sections of the new law that would revolutionize the electoral system in the country, but expressed reservations about Section 84 (12).
The section reads, ‘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 nomination of candidates for any election’.
In the letter, Buhari drew the attention of the chamber to the provisions of Section 84(12), which he noted constituted a “defect” that conflicted with extant constitutional provisions.
However, Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling on an ex parte application filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, agreed that the Electoral Act had become a valid law and could not be tampered with without following the due process.
