By Ismail Auwal
A Federal High Court in Kano has ruled that statutory delegates can vote in the All Progressives Congress presidential primary (APC).
Statutory delegates are current and former public office holders — they include presidents and governors.
The plaintiffs Mas’ud Doguwa, Habibu Sani, and Bilyaminu Shinkafi asked the court on May 24 to determine whether section 84(8) of the Electoral Act 2022 prohibits statutory delegates from voting during primaries.
The senate president, APC national chairman, speaker of the house of representatives, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were listed as first to fourth respondents, respectively, in the suit marked FHC/KN/CS/137/2022.
In the ruling on Friday, A.M. Liman, the presiding judge, held that section 84(8) does not exclude statutory delegates from voting at primaries.
According to the court, section 84(8) “cannot be interpreted to have excluded statutory delegates from voting at the convention, congress, or meeting by virtue of section 223 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) and article 20(iv)(c) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) constitution, which allow statutory delegation to vote at convention, congress or meeting”.
A bill seeking to enable statutory delegates to vote at conventions and congresses was recently passed by the national assembly.
The bill followed an attempt by lawmakers to correct an “error” in section 84(8) of the electoral act.
Leading the debate on the floor of the senate prior to the approval of the bill, Ovie Omo-Agege, deputy senate president, had said the electoral act amendment bill assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari in February only recognises ad hoc delegates.
However, the president is yet to assent to the bill on statutory delegates.
