No relief for ministers, as Appeal Court orders political appointees to resign, nullifies High Court judgement, upturns Section 84(12) of Electoral Act

There is no relief for ministers yet as the Court of Appeal on Wednesday upturned the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, which repealed Section 84(12) of the amended Electoral Act 2022. Despite the upturning of the high court judgment, the appeal court ordered ministers and other political appointees to resign before contesting the primaries of political parties for the 2023 general elections. President Muhammadu Buhari had at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday at the State Gouse, Abuja, ordered all ministers aspiring for the president to resign their appointments with immediate effect. The directive was issued without exception of those aspiring for governor, senate, and others. The judgement of the appeal court validates the president’s directive, compounding the faith of the ministers still in office while aspiring for APC election tickets.

The Court of Appeal, yet, within its own jurisprudence, nullified Section 84(12) of Electoral Act 2022, insisting that it is unconstitutional and violation of Section 42 (1)(a) of the Constitution.

The three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Hamma Akawu Barka, in a judgment in Abuja, declared 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 Court of Appeal ruling on the appeal: CA/OW/87/2022 filed by the PDP, dismissed the suit marked: FHC/UM/CS/26/2022, noting that Edede did not establish any cause of action to have warranted him to file the suit at the court on the issue, saying he did not establish that he was directly affected by the provision.

The controversial Section 84(12) of the amended Electoral Act, 2022, stipulates that: “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 purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.”