Ngige, Malami, Amaechi, Onu, Sylva, Ogar in attendance, as Buhari bids farewell to outgoing ministers in Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari is currently holding a meeting in the council chambers of the Presidential Villa, with outgoing ministers in his cabinet seeking political offices in the 2023 General Elections.

Those in attendance at the meeting include; Ministers Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige; Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; Women Affairs, Paullen Tallen; Niger Delta Affairs, Goodwill Akpabio; Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami; Science, Technology and Innovation, Ogbonnaya Onu.

Minister of State in attendance include those for; Mines and Steel, Uche Ogar, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, and Niger Delta Affairs, Tayo Alasoadura.

The minister had formally tendered their resignation letters in line with the order by President Buhari to political appointees in his cabinet to resign their appointments as they pursue various political ambitions in 2023.

Buhari’s order is also sequel to the ruling by the Appeal Court which vacated an earlier Federal High Court in Umuahia judgement that had voided the Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, judgment in April, striking down Section 84(12) of the newly amended Electoral Act.

Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act provides 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”.

It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, Wednesday, this week, vacated the judgement of the Federal High Court in Umuahia, Abia State, which had voided the provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022.

The appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-man panel of Justices led by Justice Hamma Akawu Barka, held that the high court, acted without jurisdiction.

It held that the Plaintiff, Nduka Edede, lacked the locus standi to institute the action.

According to the appellate court, Edede failed to establish any cause of action that warranted him to approach the court on the issue, noting that the plaintiff was unable to prove how he was directly affected by that section of the newly amended Electoral Act.

Consequently, it struck out the suit marked: FHC/UM/CS/26/2022, which Edede filed before the Umuahia court.

Nonetheless, the appellate court, while determining the appeal on the merit, held that the said provision of the electoral law was unconstitutional because it is in breach of Section 42 (1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, stressing that the section denied a class of Nigerian citizens their right to participate in election.

The judgment followed an appeal marked: CA/OW/87/2022, which was filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

It would be recalled that the Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, had struck down Section 84(12) of the amended Electoral Act which President Muhammadu Buhari had written to the National Assembly to delete. 

The Court also ordered the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami SAN, to delete the said Subsection 12 of Section 84 from the body of the Electoral Act.

Justice Evelyn Anyadike, in the Suit marked FHC/UM/CS/26/2022, held that Sections 66(1)(f), 107(1)(f), 137(1)(f) and 182(1)(f) of the 1999 Constitution already stipulated that appointees of government seeking to contest elections were only to resign at least 30 days to the date of the election and that any other law that mandated such appointees to resign or leave office at any time before that was unconstitutional, invalid, illegal null and void to the extent of its inconsistency to the clear provisions of the Constitution.

President Buhari had in a circular signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, officially written the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefelie, and heads of agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, among others seeking to contest the 2023 general elections to resign.