The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has said that the Executive arm of government will delete the provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Malami said this on Friday in a statement following the ruling of a Federal High Court in Umuahia, Abia State, also on Friday.
The section states 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.
President Muhammadu Buhari had also complained about this section when he signed the amended Electoral Act.
Buhari said he signed the Electoral Act with reservations, urging the National Assembly to delete the provision as it violated the Constitution and breached the rights of government appointees.
He followed it up with a letter to the Senate, but the request was rejected.
Malami in the statement by his spokesman, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, after the court judgment that nullified the section, said with this development, the constitutionally offensive provision will be deleted accordingly.
He said: “The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice will accordingly give effect to the court judgement in line with the dictates of the law and the spirit of the judgement.
“The judgement of the court will be recognized by the Government printers in printing the Electoral Act.
“The Act will be gazetted factoring the effect of the judgement into consideration and deleting the constitutionally offensive provision accordingly.
“The provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022 is not part of our law and will be so treated accordingly.
“This is in line with the dictates of chapter 7, Part 4, Section 287 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) on enforcement of decisions that makes it a point of duty and obligation on all authorities and persons to have the judgment of the federal High Court, among others, to be enforced.”