Court Fixes March 20 For Adventist Church’s Case Against Saturday Elections, Exams

The Federal High Court in Abuja will on March 20 rule on a  lawsuit brought by a Seventh-day Adventist, Ugochukwu Uchenwa, seeking to prohibit the conduct of exams and elections on Saturdays.

After hearing Wednesday’s arguments from attorneys for and opposing the complaint, Justice James Omotosho fixed March 20 to rule on the case.

Naija News reports that the complainant, Uchenwa, is an elder in the church. He instituted the lawsuit because he and other church members were denied the ability to practice their religion, arguing that elections and exams fixed on Saturday violated their rights to freedom of worship.

He is requesting that the court rule that it is unconstitutional for elections and exams to be fixed on Saturdays.

Alternatively, the plaintiff is requesting that the defendants grant him and other churchgoers permission to cast ballots and take exams on any other day of the week, including Sundays.

The President, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, and the Minister of Internal Affairs are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Examinations, JAMB, National Examination Council, NECO, West African Examination Council, WAEC, National Business and Technical Examination Board, Council of Legal Education, and Ministry of Education were also joined in the suit as defendants.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Benjamin Amaefule,  informed the judge that his client merely wanted his basic rights to electoral participation and education freely enforced.

A declaration that the Nigerian election timetable, which takes place on Saturdays, the “Sabbath day,” violates his fundamental right to freedom of worship, among other things, was among the requests Amaefule’s client made of the court.

“It is also a violation of conscience, profession, free practice of faith and the right to participate freely in the government of the applicant and that of entire members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Nigeria,” he said.

He maintained that fixing examinations and elections on the “Sabbath day of the Lord ” was also a violation of the right to freedom of education of the applicant and the members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Nigeria.

According to him, scheduling exams and elections for the “Sabbath day of the Lord” violates both the applicant’s and the Seventh-day Adventist Church Nigeria members’ right to a free and compulsory education.