The Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, has ruled that the former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, is eligible to contest the 2023 presidential election.
The presiding judge, Justice Isa Hamma Dashen, gave the judgement on Friday in a suit, He also held that Jonathan’s right to vie for the office of president again cannot be stopped by any retroactive law.
The suit was filed by Andy Solomon and Idibiye Abraham as first and second plaintiffs and listed Jonathan, the All Progressives Congress, and the Independent National Electoral Commission as first, second, and third defendants respectively.
But the APC and the INEC did not have any legal representations in the matter.
Solomon and Abraham, who are believed to be members of the APC, had approached the court through their counsels, Egbuwabi Seigha and Timi Robinson, seeking the disqualification of Jonathan from the 2023 presidential polls.
They argued that by virtue of the introduction of Section 137 sub-sections 1(b) and 3 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended, the former president was no longer eligible to vie for the office of the president because he had taken an oath to that office on two previous occasions.
Delivering judgement on the matter on Friday, Justice Dashen dismissed the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs and held that the swearing in of Jonathan as acting president on May 6, 2010, after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was a constitutional provision.
According to him, the 2007 general election produced the late Yar’Adua as president and not Jonathan, stressing that Section 137 could not have a retroactive effect to stop him from contesting the forthcoming presidential polls.
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