FromGodwin Tsa,Abuja

An Abuja based legal practitioner and human rights activist has dragged the National Assembly and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the Federal High Court over alleged obnoxious provisions of the 2026 Electoral Act, which he said, constitutes legislative criminality and democratic sabotage.

In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1015/2026 and dated May 20, the lawyer, Okere Kingdom Nnamdi, is specifically seeking judicial interpretation to sections 63 (1) & (2), 138 (1) & (2), 77 (4) AND SECTION 83(5) (6) of the Electoral Act 2026. Joined in the suit as defendants are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the National Assembly and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

It is his contention that the 2026 Act has removed one of the most important sections of the electoral Act 2022 that accords the eligibility and disqualification sections of the 1999 constitution.

The plaintiff noted that the provisions of section 138 (1) of the Electoral Act 2026 which is a reenactment of section 134 (1) of the Electoral Act 2022 and which expunged section 134 (1) (a) of the Electoral Act 2022, and which provides one of the grounds upon which an election may be questioned at the Tribunal amounts to legislative criminality and impunity and sabotage to Nigeria’s democracy.

The said section 138 (1) of the 2026 Electoral Act provides, “An election may be questioned on the grounds that the (a) election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of this Act; or (b) respondent was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election.”

Whereas section 134 (1) (a) of the Electoral Act 2022 provides “a person whose election is questioned was at the time of the election not qualified to contest the election.”

The implication is that if a candidate presented by a political party is not constitutionally qualified to contest the election, and such an unqualified candidate is declared winner by INEC, his election cannot be questioned at the Election Petition Tribunal by the candidate of another party who contested same position with him and who is constitutionally qualified to contest the election. What the leadership of the National Assembly led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker of House of Representatives, did was a criminal sabotage to Nigeria’s democracy aimed to protect the incumbent President Bola Tinubu, who is alleged to parade a fake and questionable academic certificate from Chicago State University in the USA. The criminal sabotage to Nigeria’s democracy by the leadership of the National Assembly, led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Tajudeen Abbas (speaker of House of Representatives) was collaborated by the Attorney General who is the chief law officer of the federation, and who deliberately abdicated from his constitutional responsibility to advise the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the various provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 that are inconsistent with the 1999 constitution before the President assented to the bill.

According to the plaintiff, “This act of criminal sabotage to Nigeria’s democracy by the deliberate removal of section 134 (1) (a) of the Electoral Act 2022 as reenacted in section 138 (1)of the 2026 Electoral Act contradicts and ridicules the mandatory qualification and disqualification provisions of the 1999 Constitution, provided in Sections 65, 66, 106, 107, 131, 137, 177, 182) and therefore renders the entire section 138 (1) of the 2026 Electoral Act unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect whatsoever. He formulated the following questions for the determination of the court: “Whether the provision of section 77 (4) of the Electoral Act 2026 is not in conflict with the constitutional rights of Nigerians to freely join/belong to any political party/association of their choice for the protection of their interest(s) without any hindrance, timing, control or restriction whatsoever; as guaranteed in section 40 of the 1999 constitution.

“Whether the by provision of section 77 (4) of the Electoral Act 2026, which requires the mandatory submission of party’s membership register 21 days to the date to the party primaries, congresses or convention, the political party is deemed to have closed its register of members to Nigerians until after the primaries, Congresses or conventions, and will not register new members within the said period, and whether this amounts to hinderance or restriction, aberration, or suspension of section 40 of the 1999 Constitution.

“Whether the National Assembly can by an Act, however enacted, alter, expunge, restrict or suspend the operation of section 40 of the 1999 constitution or any other section of the 1999 Constitution, except by way of constitutional amendment strictly passed and in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.”