The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said President Muhammadu Buhari, would consider the security and financial implications of direct primary elections before signing the Electoral Act amendment bill into law.
Malami said this on Channels Television’s programme, “Politics Today’” on Sunday.
The Indepedent National Electoral Commission had stated recently that the direct primary mode would gulp more public funds.
Most governors have rejected the direct mode of primary while the National Assembly insists that it should be signed into law.
Several political parties have also kicked against the direct primary election, stating that it was undemocratic.
There were reported moves by the All Progressives Congress governors to lobby Malami to advise the President not to sign the Amendment bill into law.
While refusing to give an opinion on the matter, Malami stated that the President would be guided by the need for justice, legal issues, the security situation in the country and the cost.
Malami stated: “One thing I can tell you is that whatever the decision the President will eventually make arising from the amendment will be a decision that will be based on justice that will be based on the public interest, the security interest and the economic interest of the nation.
“All these things will be factored in by the President on arriving at a decision on whether to assent to a bill or not and I do not see this electoral bill being different in terms of the exercise of the discretion of the President. All the necessary material factors both economic, security, judicial, legal and otherwise will naturally come in as far as the discretion of the President is concerned.”
Malami also clarified the controversy regarding the $139m recovered from Keystone Bank.
The Executive Director, North and Public Sector Directorate, Keystone Bank, Lawal Ahmed, at an investigative hearing last week stated that Malami asked the bank to pay government’s funds to the tune of $96m in dollars while $40m be paid in naira at a rate of N303/$1.
Malami stated that the money was paid into the Treasury Single Account and this was the prevailing exchange rate at the time in 2017.
Malami further argued that the payment method was varied because the bank did not have enough dollars.
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