Just three days to presidential primary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a Federal High Court in Kano has ruled that Section 84 of the Electoral Act does not prevent statutory delegates from voting at the special convention.
Justice Abdullahi Liman in a judgment said:“That Section 84(8) cannot be interpreted to have excluded statutory delegates from voting at the convention, congress or meeting by virtue of Section 223 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Article 20(iv)(c) of the All Progressives Congress constitution, which allow statutory delegates to vote at convention, congress or meeting.”
With the ruling, the composition of the delegates that will elect the presidential candidate of the party on June 6, 2022 remains a subject of controversy.
Persecondnews recalls that the National Assembly had in May amended Section 84(8) of the Electoral Act to permit automatic or statutory delegates to vote in primaries. This is based on the interpretation that Section 84(8) only permits elected delegates from taking part in primaries but President Muhammadu Buhari refused to sign the amendment.
The extant Subsection 8 states: “A political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidate shall clearly outline in its constitution and rule the procedure for the democratic election of delegates to vote at the convention, congress or meeting.
Statutory delegates that the amendment was seeking to include in the Electoral Act include persons holding executive positions in the party and members of the party elected into public offices.
For the APC, the statutory delegates include the President, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, sitting and former National Assembly members, serving and former governors and their deputies, National Working Committee members, state party chairmen and secretaries, local government chairmen, their deputies, councillors and party chairmen in the 774 local government areas.
Instituted by former Senator Mas’Ud Doguwa; and two others — Habibu Sani and Biliyaminu Shinkafi, the suit no. FHC/KN/CS/137/2022 in an originating summons asked the court to determine if Section 84(8) of the Act actually bars statutory delegates from voting.
Listed as respondents in the suit are the Senate President, the National Chairman of the APC, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Ahead of the primary on Monday, APC has elected three delegates each from the 774 local government areas in the country and the six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, bringing the total to 2,340 delegates.
This arrangement is believed to have put some states such as Lagos at a disadvantage as it has only 20 LGAs and will be entitled to just 60 delegates unlike Kano with 44 councils will have 132 delegates.
With the ruling and if the statutory delegates are allowed to vote, the number of delegates is expected to increase to about 7, 800 with Lagos State being in the top four alongside Kano, Katsina and Osun states.
Meanwhile, INEC said on Friday that it had yet to receive any court judgment.
The spokesmam for the INEC Chairman, Mr Kayode Oyekanmi, said: “If the court gave the judgment today (Friday), I’m not sure it has reached our headquarters. If it gets there, it will be processed normally.
“INEC complies with court judgments. Note that primary is the business of political parties. What INEC does is to monitor the process and ensure that they comply with extant laws; the Electoral Act and the constitution.”
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