2015 Election: 2 Lawyers, Activist Want Court To Declare Jonathan Ineligible

A federal high court sitting in Abuja has been asked to stop the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from fielding President Goodluck Jonathan and his deputy, Namadi Sambo as presidential and vice presidential candidates in the February 14, 2015 presidential elections.

The plaintiffs who are lawyers and human rights activist, Mase Daphine Acho, Saeeq Umar Sarki and Murtala Abubakar said that Jonathan and Sambo were not qualified to be elected president and vice president of Nigeria respectively in the next election.

Jonathan, Sambo, PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were joined as defendants in the case.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers, Mustapha Ibrahim, Mr Abdul Mohammed and Aliyu Lemu, in the suit argued that by virtue of the Supreme Court’s decision in Marwa V Nyako (2012) 6 NWLR (Part 1296) at 199, the incumbent president and his deputy were not to stand for the election.

They argued that Jonathan and Sambo are barred by the provisions of the constitution which state that no person can stay in office of the president and vice president beyond a period of eight years.

“The current holders of the offices of the president and the vice president, at the expiration of their current terms in office would have held their respective office for a period of five years”.

They stated that Jonathan and Sambo had held office for two terms recognised by the 1999 constitution to wit: (i) the first term was held to conclude the un-expired term of the late president, Umaru Musa Yar’adua between the 6th May 2010 to 29th May 2011;

(ii) the second term is still being served from the 29th May 2011 to 29th May 2015.

The plaintiffs asked the court to declare that Jonathan and Sambo do not have the capacity to serve as president and vice president respectively for another term of four years after the completion of their current terms in office in view of the combined effect of the provisions of sections 135(2) (a) and 137(b) of the constitution.

They further asked the court to ‎declare that Jonathan and Sambo having already spent five years in office as president and vice president respectively are not eligible to contest for the office of president and vice president for another term of four years thereby amounting to a contravention of the combined provisions ofsections 135(2) (a) and 137(b) of the constitution.

‎Other reliefs sought by the plaintiffs are:

A declaration that the first oath of office subscribed to by Jonathan on May 6th, 2010, being the oath of office administered to him to occupy the office of president for the purpose of completion of the un-expired term of office of the late president Yar’adua must be taken into cognizance in computing the number of years that he has served and can serve as president, in determining the effect of the combined provisions of sections 135(2) (a) and 137(1)(b) of the constitution.

An order of the court restraining INEC from recognizing Jonathan and Sambo as presidential and vice presidential candidates of the PDP or any other political party for the 2015 presidential elections.

The plaintiffs claimed that allowing Jonathan and Sambo to contest in the 2015 elections would amount to a breach of the 1999 constitution which Jonathan and Sambo swore to uphold.

They said that the intervention of the court was required for an interpretation of the provisions of the 1999 constitution.

Source: Leadership