There are strong indications that the All Progressives Congress may disqualify political appointees contesting the 2023 elections who have not resigned their appointments. On Monday, gathered that the party would not risk being disqualified by fielding political appointees in contravention of Section 84 (12).
Political appointees who have signified their interest to contest the presidency on the platform of the APC included the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and his counterpart for Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, who joined the race on Tuesday last week.
There were reports that the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), was interested in the Kebbi State governorship ticket of the party while some serving ambassadors are also said to be nursing political ambitions too.
Section 84 (12) of the new Electoral Act mandates all political appointees seeking elective office to resign ahead of any party primary they plan to participate in.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had, while signing the electoral bill on February 25, expressed reservations over Section 84(12) and asked the National Assembly to delete it.
He subsequently wrote to the National Assembly requesting the amendment. The President’s request was, however, rejected.
A lawyer, Nduka Edede, who is a member of the Action Alliance, approached a Federal High Court in Umuahia seeking a declaration that the provision was illegal.
Justice Evelyn Anyadike subsequently ruled that the section was “unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void and of no effect whatsoever” and asked Malami to delete the section.
The AGF was the only respondent to the suit, while the National Assembly and others were not joined. However, Malami agreed with the plaintiff that the provision was illegal.
The National Assembly and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party had however appealed the judgment.
Both the PDP and the National Assembly had been granted permission to join as a person interested in an appeal against the High Court judgment which voided and struck out Section 84 (12).
The appeal filed by the PDP at the Owerri Division of the Court of Appeal had been slated for hearing on May 4.
A top member of the APC National Working Committee, who confided in one of our correspondents on Monday, said two options were open to the party.
According to him, the ruling party is awaiting the judgment of the Court of Appeal and even the Supreme Court on the controversial clause.
When asked if his party would sell forms to the aspirants who have yet to resign, the APC spokesman said, “I’m not able to take those questions.”
When contacted, an aide of Amaechi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the minister still had time. “The minister still has time. The convention holds on May 30,” he said.
An aide of Ngige, when contacted, referred us to what the minister said a few weeks ago. Ngige, in an interview on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme monitored on April 21, said he would not resign.
Asked if he had any fears about the controversial Section 84 of the Electoral Act, the former Anambra State governor said, “The (1999) constitution is the grundnorm, it is the biggest and heaviest of all the laws in Nigeria. And for you to be president, Section 137 has given you areas of qualifications and areas of disqualifications.”
“That constitution says you do so (resign) one month to election, for public officers. The issue now is that is a minister a public servant? Yes. Go to Section 5, you will see me listed there; ministers, commissioners, governors, Vice-President, President, and heads of ministerial bodies.
They listed all of us and gave certain things we should not do; you cannot take two jobs, you can’t; you can’t do business or trade, that area says you can only do farming as a public officer.”
Meanwhile, the APC on Monday stormed the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission with a branded truck conveying cartons of papers containing the register of all its members.
The move comes barely five days to the deadline as provided by Section 77 of the Electoral Act which provides that a political party must submit its membership register at least 30 days before its primaries.
With the party’s Presidential primary expected to hold on May 30, the party had until April 29 to submit its register.
It was learnt that APC officials submitted the membership register to the Election and Party Monitoring Department.
An INEC official, who confirmed the development on Monday, stated, “The APC brought a truck to the commission and they offloaded cartons of papers containing their membership register. They claim to have 40 million members.”
In a related development,the ruling party began the sale of forms on Tuesday (today).
The governorship, Presidential and federal legislative forms are expected to be sold at the national secretariat while the forms for the House of Assembly would be sold in the states.
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