Appeal Court Gives Jonathan Green Light, Rules He is Qualified to Seek Re-election

PDP congratulates president on verdict.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja Tuesday dismissed an appeal challenging the eligibility of the President Goodluck Jonathan to seek another term of four years in office, holding  that the president is eligible to re-contest in the March 28 residential election.

The court dismissed an appeal filed by Cyriacus Njoku
against a judgment of an Abuja High Court which had earlier dismissed the case.

A panel of five justices of the appellate court, headed by Justice Abubakar Yahaya, in a unanimous judgment, held that the appellant’s suit was speculative and imaginary.

In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Yahaya, the court held that Jonathan had only spent one term in office as the president going by the provision of the constitution.

The court noted that the appellant lacked the locus standi to challenge the president’s qualification to contest adding that where a party lacked locus, the court could not assume jurisdiction.

On that ground, the court upheld the decision of the lower court which dismissed Cyriacus’s suit for lack of locus standi.

“We agree with the lower court that the appellant has no locus to sue”, the court held.

On the cause of action, the court held that the case of the appellant was speculative and imaginary as none of the reliefs he sought accrued any benefit to him.

On the issue of taken oath of office and allegiance twice by Jonathan, the court pointed out that the constitution was the grundnorm.

It held that court of law was duty bound to consider the entire provision of the constitution.

Justice Abubakar said: “In this appeal, it is not controverted by the appellant that the first oath taken by the first defendant (Jonathan) was the oath he took as the vice- president and not as president.

“But he took the oath in May 2010 to complete unexpired tenure of late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

“Section 37(1)(b) disqualifies a person from contesting for president if he had been elected twice.

“Disqualification is through election and not oath taking.

Election is a process of choosing a person to occupy a
position by voting. When election is given its literal meaning, it connotes when a voting is employed to choose a person for political office.

“This did not take place when Jonathan stepped into the shoe of his principal who went to the great beyond.

To say these things were done is to import words not used by the constitution. Section 146(1) of the constitution cannot be deemed an election for a vice president to step into the office of a president.

“Election involves conducting primaries by party, nomination, election and announcement of results. All these processes were not done. If a vice-president succeeds a president that dies, that cannot be challenged. It is a mode of stepping into the vacant office provided for by the constitution.

“When a president dies, the vice-president automatically becomes president as provided for by Section 130 (1)(2) of the 1999 Constitution.”

In addition, the court also held that oath taken by Jonathan in May 2010 was a constitutional process.

He noted that going by Section 135 (2)(b) of the Contitution, the president took the
oath of office for the first time in May 2011, adding that the 2010 oath was to complete the unexpired term of Yara’Adua.

The court also noted that if Jonathan was disqualified as prayed by the appellant, the system of election would have then been altered.

“It was not election that produced the first respondent in May 2010, the oath he took then was not an oath of elected president as provided for by Section 180 of the constitution.

“The process which produced the first respondent in 2010 was not election but a constitutional process.

This was different to what happened in 2011.
“The process of election was followed in 2011. The oath of office taken in 2011 was the first oath taking by the first respondent as an elected president having fulfilled all the process, of election,” the court further held.

Meanwhile, the PDP has congratulated President Jonathan for his victory at the Court of Appeal.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a
statement yesterday said the court ruling represents a
positive step towards President Jonathan’s impending
overwhelming victory at the polls come March 28.

The party described the verdict as “victory for democracy and the rule of law especially in protecting the inalienable rights of eligible citizens to freely participate in the electoral process without any form of hindrance” adding that the development has helped to enrich the judiciary and further deepened the nation’s democratic evolution.

The PDP also applauded President Jonathan for always remaining focused and upholding democratic principles, which enable Nigerians to operate in an environment that allows for full expression of fundamental rights.

Commending the judiciary for its stabilising role in the polity, the PDP urged its members and supporters across the country to close ranks and stand on the platform of this judicial victory to intensify efforts for eventual electoral victory for the president and other candidates of the party in the general elections.