Criticisms continue to trail Friday’s controversial judgement of the Federal High Court in Umuahia, Abia State, striking down section 84 of the newly amended Electoral Act.
It is a statutory innovation aimed at checking abuse of office by government appointees during elections or the selection of candidates at party primaries. Nduka Edede, a lawyer and top member of the Action Alliance , one of Nigeria’s fringe political parties, filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Umuahia to challenge the constitutionality of the said section 84 of the Electoral Act.
e section 84 of the Electoral Act in compliance with Friday’s verdict. The move foreclosed the possibility of an appeal being filed against the judgement.Lawyers and pro-democracy advocates have criticised the legal and social basis of the judgement, which they say further erodes public confidence in the Nigerian judiciary.
“It is just sad that the judiciary is being ridiculed in this manner,” Mr Itodo pointed to subsisting order of another federal court in Abuja, which barred Mr Buhari, the Attorney-General and the National Assembly from tampering with the newly amended Electoral Act. Suspicious of Mr Malami’s swift plan to implement the latest court ruling, Mr Ojo asked why the AGF has not been “swift in carrying out previous judgements of the court.”
Femi Falana and Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria, in their separate interventions, said the judge was wrong to have reached such a decision. Similarly, Mr Adegboruwa in his official Facebook page wondered how the judge could “nullify an Act without joining the institution that made the Act, so that they can be heard concerning what they did?”