The Supreme Court has struck out a suit by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) seeking to void the provision of Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022.
In a judgment on Friday, a seven-member panel of the apex court, headed by Justice Musa Dattijo Mohammed, was unanimous in holding that President Buhari, having participated in the making of the law by assenting to it, could not turn around to fault its provisions.
The court upheld all the grounds of objection raised by the National Assembly, through its lawyer, Dr. Olukayode Ajulo, against the competence of the suit marked: SC/504/2022.
The President and the AGF had through their Lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi SAN argued among others, that Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act was made in excess of the constitutional powers of the National Assembly and therefore, unconstitutional and illegal.
The Supreme Court, however, agreed with Ajulo that the suit is not one of such cases in respect of which the court’s original and additional jurisdictions could be invoked under Section 23(2)(1) of the Constitution and Section 1(1)(a) of the Supreme Court (Additional Jurisdiction) Act 2002.
The court faulted the plaintiffs’ argument that the suit was informed by the National Assembly’s failure to give effect to President Buhari’s request that Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act be deleted for allegedly offending the provisions of the Constitution.
The apex court held that the President lacked the constitutional or legal rights or power to request or compel the National Assembly to amend or make an Act.
