The furore over the amendment of section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022 continued on Sunday after a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, accused the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami of manipulating the judiciary on the matter.
Justice Evelyn Anyadike of the Federal High Court, Umuahia, had on March 19 ordered the AGF to delete the contentious section which requires political appointees to resign from their positions at least three months before their parties’ primaries or conventions.
The ruling came a few days after the Federal High Court, Abuja, restrained the National Assembly from taking further action on the electoral law.
In a chat with journalists last week, Malami said the Federal Government had commenced steps on the removal of the section.
Falana, who reacted to the development in a statement, alleged that Malami manipulated the court to issue conflicting orders on the electoral law.
He said: “Malami, who is the defendant in both cases, did not draw the attention of the Ibadan and Umuahia judicial divisions of the federal high court to the fact that the Abuja division of the same court had on March 7, 2022, restrained the AGF, President Muhammadu Buhari, National Assembly and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from refusing to implement the provisions of the section.
“Malami failed to disclose to the Umuahia judicial division of the federal high court that the Ibadan division had struck out a similar case for want of locus standi.
“In any case, since the case pending at the Ibadan judicial division of the federal high court was well reported in the print and electronic media, the judge sitting in the Umuahia judicial division ought to have struck out the fresh case before her as it constituted a gross abuse of court process.
“It is pertinent to note that while the AGF pretended not to know about the order of interim injunction granted by the Abuja judicial division of the federal high court, he has announced the plan of the federal government to comply with the judgment delivered in the Umuahia case as soon as possible.”
