Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana
(SAN), has threatened to drag the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and other
parties to court over the sale of nomination form to aspirants in the 2019
election.
The senior lawyer insisted that
previous court judgments have prohibited such payment.
His reaction followed PDP’s
decision to sell nomination forms for N12 million to its presidential
candidates for the 2019 election.
Falana blamed President Muhammadu
Buhari for his inability to change the guideline despite expressing
disappointment that he took a loan of N27m to buy the APC nomination form
during the 2015 elections.
He told Punch: “The conditions
for contesting elections from local government, to the House of Assembly,
governorship, House of Representatives, Senate and presidential levels, are all
in the constitution.
“There are decisions of the court
to the effect that the Independent National Electoral Commission and state
electoral commissions cannot collect fees from candidates who are contesting
elections.
“So, if I am going to contest
election, you can’t ask me to pay N27m as nomination fee because that is
unknown to the constitution.
“Therefore, the parties cannot
decide their own rules. They cannot impose prohibitive rules that will restrict
the participation in the contest of an election to moneybags.
“Of course, we may have to sue
the political parties if they continue this illegality. We cannot go on like
this.
“Aggrieved party members should
be encouraged to challenge the prohibitive nomination fees imposed on aspirants
by political parties.
“I believe any citizen, who meets
the requirements outlined in the Constitution, is qualified to contest any election.
Political parties cannot add to the constitutional requirements.”
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So where Femi Falana when Buhari and APC sold her nomination form @#25 000,000 when Baba has to borrow the money ?nawao
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