By Deborah Onyofufeke
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, dismissed the judgment of the Umuahia Federal High Court in Abia State, which voided Section 84(12) of the Amended Electoral Act, 2022.

The appellate court maintained that the Plaintiff, Mr. Nduka Edede, lacked the right to institute the action as he failed to convince the cause of action that warranted him to come before the court on the matter

The court held that the plaintiff was unable to prove how the section 84(12) of the newly amended Electoral Act affects him directly which led to the suit marked: FHC/UM/CS/26/2022, which was filed by Edede before the Umuahia court to be struck out

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

Nonetheless, the appellate court, while determining the appeal on the merit, held that section 84(12) of the electoral Act 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 the election.

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

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Recall that Justice Evelyn Anyadike of the Umuahia High Court in March, vacated section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022 and ordered that it should be deleted by the Attorney-General of the Federation for being inconsistent with the Constitution.

Following Justice Anyadike’s judgment, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister to Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, disclosed his decision to carry out the judgment with the court order.

Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act, 2022, made it mandatory that political office holders must firstly resign from office, before they could run for any elective position.