The Senate has rejected the request by President Muhammadu Buhari to amend a contentious section 84 (12) of the newly signed Electoral Act 2022.
The proposed law, “A bill for an Act to Amend the Electoral Act 2022” was overwhelmingly rejected during its second reading, Tribune reports.
Before a voice vote on the bill, which nays had it, several lawmakers spoke against going ahead to amend the Act and urged that the Senate should abide by a court ruling, which stopped the National Assembly from tampering with the electoral law.
President Muhammadu Buhari had, in a letter to the National Assembly last week, asked the federal lawmakers to amend the Act, by deleting Section 84 (12), which, according to him, constitutes a “defect” that is in conflict with extant Constitutional provisions.
The section bars political appointees from contesting elections.
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday barred President Muhammad Buhari, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the Senate President from tampering with the Act.
The judge, Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling on an ex-parte application by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the Electoral Act having become a valid law could not be amended without following the due process of law.
Specifically, the court restrained President Buhari, the AGF and the National Assembly and other 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.
But the Senate President Ahmad Lawan on Tuesday said the court ruling would not stop the National Assembly from amending the Electoral Act 2022.
He said the court ruling violated the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) on Separation of Powers.
Efforts by Lawan and Ovie-OmoAgege to ensure that the bill scaled second reading was vehemently opposed by Senators Eyinnaya Abaribe, Adamu Alier and Smart Adeyemi among others.
The bill was later defeated through voice votes.
