TheCable

Betta Edu, Cross River commissioner of health, faces disqualification in the contest for the national women leader position of the All Progressives Congress (APC) — by virtue of the controversial Section 84(12) of the new Electoral Act.

The section provides that: “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.”

TheCable understands that the party’s convention sub-screening committee may disqualify Edu on the grounds of the new law.

New national working committee (NWC) members will be elected during the ruling party’s convention which is scheduled for Saturday.

On Thursday, the ruling party opted to remain on the right side of the electoral act, announcing that political appointees elected as delegates would not be allowed to vote or be voted for at the convention.

The federal government recently said it is taking the “necessary steps” towards deleting the section.

Last Friday, a federal high court in Umuahia, Abia state, ordered the attorney-general of the federation to delete the section from the amended electoral act.

Evelyn Anyadike, the judge, held that it was unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void and cannot stand.

Anyadike ruled that sections 66(1)(f), 107(1)(f), 137(1)(f) and 182(1)(f) of the 1999 constitution already stipulated that appointees of government seeking to contest elections were to resign at least 30 days to the date of the election.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, said the process of implementing the judgment is still ongoing.

‘I’M STILL IN THE RACE’

In a statement on Friday, however, Edu said she was still in the race.

She said she has already resigned as commissioner, although she is still profiled as a current commissioner on her social media handles.

She also did not state the date of her resignation.

In the statement signed by Esther Bepeh, she stated that the issue of disqualification “does not arise in any case because, Dr Edu, as a democrat resigned her appointment before aspiring for the position of the National Women Leader”.

She urged journalists to always confirm and verify objectively their facts before going to the press.

FIRST CASUALTY?

Edu who defected to the APC in May alongside Ben Ayade, Cross River governor, was critical of the Muhammadu Buhari administration during the #EndSARS protests.

The commissioner was recently forced to admit that her comments at the time were “indelicate”.

“I do acknowledge that a few of my spur-of-the-moment tweets and impulsive reactions to reports at the climax of the event may have been indelicate and distorted my true position on things. I am human, a mom, and thus given to emotions,” Edu had said.

“However, I want to reassure and appeal to my progressive comrades who are expressing concern not to reduce my intentions and nuanced political views in the past to a couple of badly-worded tweets.”

A group within the party had asked the convention screening sub-committee to disqualify her from contesting the position over her comments.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect Edu’s reaction.