APC Presidential Primary: Anxiety As Court Okays Statutory Delegates

• INEC denies knowledge of the ruling

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – Anxiety and uncertainty have taken the centre stage over the likely composition of the delegates list to elect the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate on June 6, 2022, following the Federal High Court in Kano ruling on Friday that Section 84 of the Electoral Act did not prevent statutory delegates from voting at the National Convention.

In a suit marked FHC/KN/CS/137/2022 instituted by a former lawmaker, Senator Mas’Ud Doguwa; and two others, Habibu Sani and Biliyaminu Shinkafi, all APC aspirants in the just-concluded National Assembly primaries, the plaintiffs had challenged the disenfranchisement of statutory delegates from participating at the primaries.

The plaintiffs, in an originating summons, dated 23rd May 2022 and filed on 24th May 2022, had urged the court to determine if Section 84(8) of the Act actually bars statutory delegates from voting at the Convention, Congress, or Meeting. In this context, the statutory delegates include ward, local government, state, and national executives of the party, including past executives, as the guidelines of the party deem fit.

Among those listed as respondents in the suit are the Senate President, the APC National Chairman, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The suit also had the second defendant filing a counter-affidavit to oppose the originating summons dated June 1, 2022. But the first, third, and fourth defendants did not file any process in the suit.

Ruling on the suit, Justice Abdullahi Liman stated; “That 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 constitution, which allows statutory delegates to vote at the convention, congress or meeting.”

With this latest development, it implies that all statutory delegates of political parties are now eligible to participate in the subsequent congresses and conventions, especially, the forthcoming national convention of the APC.

Ahead of the June 6 National Convention, the ruling APC has elected three delegates each from the 774 local government areas in the country and the six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, bringing the total number to 2,340 delegates.

This arrangement had clearly put some states like Lagos at a disadvantage as its 20 Local Government Areas were only entitled to just 60 delegates, while states like Kano, with 44 Local Government Areas had 132 delegates in its kitty.

However, with the statutory delegates allowed to vote by the Court ruling, the dynamics would change drastically as the number of delegates is expected to increase to about 7,800 with Lagos State being among the top four alongside Kano, Katsina, and Osun states.

Hoping to correct the perceived anomaly, the National Assembly last month amended Section 84(8) of the Electoral Act to permit automatic or statutory delegates to vote in primaries based on the interpretation that Section 84(8) only permits elected delegates from taking part in primaries.

The amended bill was however not assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari with no reason given for his refusal to append his signature on the document.

According to Sub-section 8, which is subsisting; “A political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidate shall clearly outline in its constitution and rule the procedure for the democratic election of delegates to vote at the convention, congress or meeting.”

Statutory delegates, whom the amendment was seeking to include in the Electoral Act, include persons holding executive positions in the party and members of the party elected into public offices.

For the APC, the statutory delegates include the President, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, sitting and former National Assembly members, serving and former governors and their deputies, National Working Committee members, state party chairmen and secretaries, local government chairmen, their deputies, councillors and party chairmen in the 774 local government areas.

Amid the uncertainty, attempts to extract reactions from the APC proved abortive as its National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and the National Publicity Secretary, Barrister Felix Morka could not be easily reached late on Friday.

We’re not in possession of any court judgment – INEC

For INEC, it was confirmed that the Electoral umpire had not received any court judgment as at the close of work on Friday, June 3, 2022.

Asked to comment on the latest development, Kayode Oyekanmi, Spokesperson for the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, said he was not aware of such judgment.

According to him; “If the court gave the judgment today (Friday), I’m not sure it has reached our headquarters. If it gets there, it will be processed normally. INEC complies with court judgments.

“Note that primary is the business of political parties. What INEC does is to monitor the process and ensure that they comply with extant laws; the Electoral Act and the constitution.”