Sahara Reporters
Former President Goodluck Jonathan says he is “constitutionally” qualified to contest for president in 2023, adding that Section 137 sub-sections 1(b) and 3 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended doesn’t have an effect on him.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on June 4, 2018, signed a constitutional amendment that stops a Vice President who completes the term of a President from contesting for the office of the President more than one more time.
The law also stops a deputy governor who completes the term of a governor from seeking a second term in office as a governor.
A President’s term can be cut short by reasons of death, resignation, or death to pave the way for the Vice President to complete the term of the departed President.
Following the death of then-President Umaru Yar’Adua on May 5, 2010, Jonathan as the then Vice President, took a new oath of office to complete Yar’Adua’s term as President.
He was also sworn in for another term on May 29, 2011, after he won the presidential poll of that year.
The first defendant has argued that since he acquired his right to contest and if successful, be sworn in as President after he lost his re-election bid in 2015 to the current President -President Muhammadu Buhari – it would be unethical to the spirit and intendment of the legislature to take away the right he acquired in 2015 on the basis of a law that came into effect in 2018.
Jonathan, in a counter-affidavit deposed by his assistant, Peletiri John Debetimi to a suit marked FHC/YNG/CS/86/2022, calling for his disqualification, said the law can’t be applied to his case.
Andy Solomon and Idibiye Abraham had approached a Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State that the former President should be disqualified from contesting the 2023 presidential election.
They listed Jonathan, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as first, second, and third defendants respectively.
The duo 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.
But responding, Jonathan said it would be unethical to the spirit and intendment of the legislature to take away the right he acquired in 2015 when he lost to President Buhari on the basis of a law that came into effect in 2018.
“Upon being served with the plaintiffs’ originating processes, the first defendant, through his counsel, E.K. Omare & Co. filed his counter-affidavit ad written address both of which are dated 19th May, 2022. The first defendant’s counter-affidavit is of 12 paragraphs and is deposed to by one Engr. Peletiri John Debetimi who described himself as an Assistant to the first defendant,” court documents seen by SaharaReporters read…
