Court stops Buhari, Senate, others from altering Electoral Act

Earlier this morning, President Muhammadu Buhari, Attorney General of the Federation, and the Senate President were stopped from tampering with the newly amended Electoral Act 2022 by Justice Inyang Eden Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, TopNaija reports.

In a ruling on an ex-parte application by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Justice Inyang Eden Ekwo agreed that the Electoral Act has become a valid law and cannot be tampered with without following due process of law.

Ekwo agreed with Chief James Ogwu Onoja SAN, counsel to PDP, that the proper place to challenge the validity of any existing law is a court of competent jurisdiction.

The court restrained all the defendants in the suit from removing section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act or preventing It from being implemented for the purpose of the 2023 general elections, and further hearing in the matter has been fixed for March 21, 2022.

Meanwhile, Mazi Jones Onwusoanya, a chieftain of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the immediate past Publicity Secretary of Imo State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC), has maintained that the Electoral Act Amendment bill recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari will not guarantee credible elections in Nigeria.

The party stalwart also maintained that the new Electoral Act is nothing but a bait meant to give Nigerians a false hope that something is going to change with the nation’s electoral process, insisting also that the All Progressive Congress, APC, and the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would continue to explore new tricks to manipulate the forthcoming 2023 general elections in the country.