Cornering the letter on the amended Electoral Act bill that was received by the President two weeks ago, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami(SAN) has written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari spotlighting the problems with the inclusion of mandatory direct primaries in the Electoral Act amendment bill.

Will Mandatory direct primaries cause confusion?

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, had confirmed that the President had received a communication from Abubakar Malami on the bill, he said, “Yes. I can confirm that the President has received a communication from the honorable minister on the matter but honestly, I am not privy to the content of the communication. I have not been briefed,” the presidential aide said.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami(SAN) has sent his advice on the Electoral Act amendment bill to President Muhammadu Buhari, highlighting the problems of the Electoral Act amendment bill.

“The AGF, did not quote any section of the law that makes it illegal which is unlike the previous letters he writes to the President.” “Abubakar Malami had hinted those financial constraints could prevent the Nigerian leader from giving his assent to the bill“.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami(SAN), raised a number of issues. He stated, “Existing political parties will not, because they have registered their parties, they have filed their constitutions long time ago on the basis of what is contained there. And most of it is a mixture, if you check the parties, direct and indirect primaries are stated.

“So, are you going to change their constitutions for them? So, this is the legal opinion. But this is just one. There are several other legal positions which favors and disfavors the bill because, as the Minister of Justice, duty is to tell the president the pros and the cons. It is now up to the President to decide on which way to go.”