A Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday shifted till January 19 next year, hearing in a suit instituted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against President Muhammadu Buhari challenging the Presidential order to the National Assembly to delete section 84 of the Electoral Act 2022.
Justice Inyang Ekwo fixed the date following information made available to the court that a related suit on the same Electoral Act is pending at the Supreme Court.
At Wednesday’s proceedings, PDP’s lawyer, James Ogwu Onoja SAN, told the Judge that the Apex Court had delivered a judgment on the same subject taken to the Apex Court directly by President Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney General of the Federation, (AGF) Abubakar Malami.
He then pleaded with the court to proceed with that of PDP since the Supreme Court did not delve into the substantive matter, but struck out Buhari’s suit for lack of jurisdiction.
However, the attention of the court was later drawn to another pending matter at the Supreme Court on the same subject matter and pleaded with Justice Ekwo to wait for the outcome of the Supreme Court in the second suit before hearing that of the PDP.
Based on the information, PDP’s lawyer agreed that the court should put off hearing in his client’s case pending the resolution of the substantive suit before the Supreme Court.
In a brief ruling, Justice Ekwo held that in the circumstances it is better for the Federal High Court to thread softly and subsequently fixed January 19 to await the report of the Supreme Court’s decision on the electoral act.
PDP through Ogwu Onoja had sued President Muhammadu Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation and the senate President over a move to alter an aspect of the electoral act 2022 after it had been signed into law by the president himself.
Onoja in the suit, prayed the court that Buhari has no power to declare section 84 of the electoral act unconstitutional and that he also lacked the power to direct the national assembly to delete the section having signed the entire electoral act into law.
