Follow Us on Google
From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
A Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Friday cleared former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2023 Presidential elections.
The suit FHC/YNG/CS/2022 filed by Andy Solomon and Idibiye Abraham as plaintiffs and former President Jonathan, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seek declaration to the effect that Jonathan is ineligible to contest the 2023 presidential election.
The plaintiffs in the suit filed on May 17 prayed for accelerated hearing seeking to disqualify Jonathan from being nominated by the APC and barring INEC from accepting him as a candidate.
They sought two reliefs from the Court, which is to declare that Jonathan having taken oath of office twice as President is ineligible and that by section 137(3) having completed the tenure of late President Umaru Yar- Adua he is not qualified to run.
The case came up on May 25 for report on service cum definite hearing and Justice Dashen adjourned the case to Friday May 27 for judgment.
Justice Dashen in his ruling, going through the written addresses by the counsel of the plaintiffs, Seigha Egbuwabi and that of Eric Omare standing for Jonathan agreed with the former President that the only oath of office taken by him as elected President was on May 29 2011 after he completed the aborted tenure of late President Umaru Yar’ Adua.
Delving into the whole gamut of election, he held that Jonathan was only a Vice-Presidential candidate and did not take the oath of office as President on May 29 2007. According to him, the oath of office of President which Jonathan took on May 6 2010 was not as a result of an election but a constitutional provision to complete the aborted tenure of late President Umaru Yar Adua.
“In the final analysis, I find that evidence before this court comes to the conclusion that the defendant has only been elected into office as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on one previous occasion which is the general election of 2011,” he declared.
On the second relief sought by the plaintiffs, Justice Dashen ruled that the provision of Section 137 (3) cannot apply retroactively to deny former President Jonathan the right to contest. He held that if the law had to be applied retroactively, it would have been expressly stated by the legislative arm. Accordingly the law only takes effect from when it was introduced to the constitution which is June 11 2018, he said.
“I am constrained to hold that the provisions of Section 137 do not enjoy retroactive application” he said.
Nevertheless he said there is a subsisting Court of Appeal ruling in Cyriacus Njoku v Goodluck Ebele Jonathan which held that former President Goodluck Jonathan had only taken the oath of office once and upheld his eligibility for the 2015 election.
Egbuwabi, speaking on behalf of the plaintiffs, said they have nothing personal against Jonathan but only want to ensure he does not transgress the law and destroy his integrity.
“We challenged the eligibility of the 1st defendant; former President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2023 election and canvassed our position before the court that he is no longer eligible to contest by the introduction of section 137 sub section 1b and sub section 3 because he has taken the oath of the President twice and by the introduction of sub section 3 which is the law as it is now. It is our position that under that law as it is presently for primaries which in fact would commence soon for the APC, he is no longer eligible.
“Ordinarily, we know that former President Goodluck Jonathan is a good person; he ruled this country with integrity and with dignity. We do not have any challenge having him back again. However, we also do not have a situation where he would come and transgress the law for the high integrity he has acquired. He worked hard to acquire this integrity and he would be allowed to slip into an error that would make him transgress the law that does not speak well of him. That was why our clients and the plaintiffs briefed us to institute this action. The Court has ruled otherwise and we are eager to have a copy of the judgment to look at it critically.” Egbuwabi who clarified that his clients are not hell-bent in truncating Jonathan’s presidential ambition served notice that his clients would proceed to the Appeal Court.
“I can only assure everybody that we would go to the Appeal Court to test it. We are not eager to deny Jonathan from contesting, but what we are maintaining is that he cannot be allowed to transgress the law,” he said.
