Judgment nullifying section 84(12) of Electoral Act is crooked, says Odinkalu

The presiding judge, Justice Evelyn Anyadike, had yesterday held that the section was “unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void and of no effect whatsoever and ought to be struck down as it cannot stand when it is in violation of the clear provisions of the Constitution.”

The court ordered the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to “forthwith delete the said section 84(12) from the body of the Electoral Act, 2022”.

A statement from the office of the Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, says “in line with the court judgment ordering the AGF to delete forthwith, section 84(12) from the Electoral Act:

“1. The office of the AGF and Minister of Justice will accordingly give effect to the Court judgment in line with the dictates of the law and the spirit of the judgment.

“2. The judgment of the Court will be recognized by the Government printers in printing the Electoral Act.

“3.  The provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022 is not part of our law and will be so treated accordingly.

“4. This is in line with the dictates of chapter 7, Part 4, Section 287 of the 1999 Constitution of the Fed Rep of Nigeria (as amended) on enforcement of decisions that make it a point of obligation on all authorities & persons to enforce the judgment of the Federal High Court, etc

” The Act will be gazetted factoring the effect of the judgment into consideration and deleting the constitutionally offensive provision accordingly.

A copy of the judgment quotes the court saying the decision to nullify section 84(12) of the Electoral Act was taken after ‘hearing’ counsel in the matter and after ‘due consideration.’

For Odinkalu, that process sounds corrupt and crooked, arguing that courts don’t make an order by hearing nor do they go into due consideration.

He said: “This is a corrupt & crooked order on its face. When a case comes up for judgment, contrary to the text of this order, the court does not “hear” counsel nor does it go into “due consideration”. It simply proceeds to judgment after taking appearances. This judge is clearly corrupt.”