The National Assembly has asked
the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja to set aside a Federal High Court judgement,
which stated that it lacked the power to re-order the proposed sequence for the
2019 general elections.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed of an
Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, had in his judgement in a suit filed
by Accord Party against National Assembly, the Attorney-General of the
Federation, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), held that
the election timetable earlier released by the INEC could not be altered by the
Legislature.
Accord Party filed the suit
through Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, after both chambers of the National
Assembly attempted to implement Section 58 of the Constitution, which allows
the Legislature to override the decision of the President.
Among reliefs the Plaintiff
sought before the court, which were granted, include “A declaration that the
3rd Defendant, is the only body and or institution constitutionally vested with
the powers, vires, and duties to organise, undertake and supervise elections to
the offices of the President and Vice President of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, the Governor and Deputy Governor of a State, membership of the Senate,
the House of Representatives and the House of Assembly of each State of the
Federation, including fixing or assigning dates of the said elections and
sequence of same”.
However in its appeal, the NASS,
which was the 1st Defendant at the lower court asked the appellate court to set
aside the decision of Justice Mohammed, and dismiss in its entirety, the
Plaintiff’s claims in the Originating Summons.
In the Notice of Appeal filed
through its Lawyer, Mr. J.B Daudu, SAN, the NASS stated that the learned trial
judge, erred in law when he assumed jurisdiction to entertain and determine the
suit, when the purpose of passing the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2018 into
an Act.
NASS contended that the trial
judge wrongly failed to appreciate that, until the Electoral Act (Amendment)
Bill 2018 was passed into an Act by the exercise of the legislative power of
the National Assembly to over-ride the veto or withholding of assent to the
Bill by the President, the same remained inchoate and not capable of vesting a
justiciable civil right or obligation on any person, including the Plaintiff.
The legislature further contended
amongst others, that the lower court wrongly interpreted the provisions of
Section 4(8) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), so as to reach the
conclusion that the Federal High Court was vested with jurisdiction to impugn a
Bill perceived to be unconstitutional.
“The lower court was further in
error, when it relied on the certificate of the Clerk of the National Assembly
pursuant to the Acts Authentication Act on the Bill (Exh ‘A’), as proof that
the Bill’s constitutionality could be challenged in a superior court of law.
“The learned trial judge erred in
law, when he failed to appreciate that the Plaintiff’s suit (subject-matter of
this Appeal), was not properly constituted and therefore, incompetent”, it
stated.
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