Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has called on Nigeria’s major political parties-All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) to withdraw the amount pegged as nomination and expression of interest fees for their presidential forms as its illegal.
In a statement on Sunday, the senior lawyer noted that the outrageous amount of N100 million and N40 million, respectively fixed by the two political parties for their presidential forms were inconsistent with the country’s constitution.
He said the parties instead, should charge administrative fees of not more than N10,000 per aspirant and withdraw the nomination fees.
“Thus, the payment of outrageous nomination fees, which is not one of the conditions for contesting elections under the current democratic dispensation, is illegal and unconstitutional on grounds of inconsistency with the Constitution.
“Therefore, as political parties are incapable to prescribe conditions for the eligibility of candidates outside the provisions of the Constitution, the nomination fees of N100 million or N40 million pegged by the APC and PDP, respectively, are illegal and unconstitutional as they constitute a flagrant violation of sections 40, 106 and 107 of the Constitution, as well as article 13(1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights Act,” he said.
