Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has told the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, that he lacks the constitutional authority to declare a public holiday ahead of the Abuja area council elections.
Falana criticised Wike’s decision to declare Friday a work-free day and impose movement restrictions from 8pm on Friday until 6pm on Saturday to facilitate the polls conducted across the six area councils of the FCT.
According to Falana, only the President, state governors, or the Minister of Interior possess the legal authority to declare public holidays, insisting that no other minister has such powers.
“He is not involved in the conduct of the election. He has no business talking about a holiday because he has no power to declare one. That was why the holiday was ignored,” Falana said.
The senior lawyer further stressed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which conducted the elections, is constitutionally independent and not subject to directives from any minister.
“Contrary to what people are saying, INEC is not bound to take directives from anybody, including the National Assembly and even the President, under the constitution. It has to be made clear that it is an independent body,” he added.
Falana also weighed in on the controversies surrounding the recently amended Electoral Act signed by Bola Tinubu, describing the rejection of compulsory electronic transmission of results as a setback to Nigeria’s electoral progress.
He argued that instead of weakening reforms, authorities should focus on addressing technical challenges that affected electronic transmission during the 2023 general elections.
PUNCH