A renowned legal practitioner in Nigeria, Femi Falana, SAN, at the weekend disagreed with Justice Evelyn Anyadike of the Federal High Court, Umuahia, Abia State, on the order to delete Section 84 (12) of the amended Electoral Act. Falana had in a statement in Lagos declared that “the learned trial judge fell into a great error.” He argued that the section of the constitution the judge relied on in delivering the judgement does not apply to political appointees, citing appeal court judgements that held that political appointees are not public servants.
The section as enacted by the National Assembly prohibits political appointees at any level of government to vote 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 presiding judge of the Federal High Court, Umuahia, Justice Evelyn Anyadike, in her judgement declared that the clause is unconstitutional.
Falana pointed out that Sections 66 (1) (f), 107(1) (f),137 (1) (f) and 182 (1) (f) of the Constitution relied upon by the lordship require persons employed in the public service of either the Federal Government or State Governments,” to resign before contesting for political office.
According to Falana: “Specifically, each of the aforesaid sections provides that “No person shall be qualified for election into the Senate or House of Reps if:
(f) he is a person employed in the public service of the Federation or of any State and has not resigned, withdrawn, or retired from such employment 30 days before the date of election.”
He noted that by virtue of section 318 of the Constitution, political appointees are not included in the list of persons employed in the public service. “To that extent, section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act was annulled on a very faulty ground,” Falana declared.
He insisted: “No doubt, the Judge would have dismissed the case if his attention had been drawn to the cases of DADA v. ADEYEYE (2005) 6 NWLR (Pt. 920) 1 at 19 ASOGWA v. CHUKWU (2003) 4 NWLR (Pt. 811) 540 OJONYE V. ONU & ORS (2018) LPELR-44223) where the appellate Courts have held that political appointees or political office holders are not public servants as provided for under the Constitution.”