Why I can contest 2015 election – Jonathan
President
Goodluck Jonathan has told an Abuja Federal High Court that he is
eligible to contest the presidential election in 2015, even if it would
mean staying in office for a total of more than eight years from the
date he was initially inaugurated as President on May 6, 2010, following
the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua.
The President made the statement through
his lawyer, Mr. Ade Okeaya-Inneh, SAN, in response to a suit in which a
Port Harcourt-based lawyer, Mr. Henry Amadi, asked the court to declare
that Jonathan no longer qualified to run for office in 2015.
Amadi had argued that in doing so,
Jonathan would be spending more than the constitutionally stipulated
maximum period of eight years in office.
The plaintiff said he was a card-carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The suit is similar to another one filed
by another self-declared member of the PDP, Chief Cyriacus Njoku,
before an Abuja High Court.
Njoku’s suit, which asked the court to
stop Jonathan from running for office in 2015 on the grounds that he
was currently serving his second term in office, having taken the oath
of office as President twice already, has been adjourned for judgment.
In the new suit, which came up before an
Abuja FHC presided by Justice Adamu Bello, on Wednesday, Jonathan and
the Independent National Electoral Commission were listed as the
defendants.
The court was also asked to stop Jonathan from once again running for office when his current term expires in 2015.
However, in his counter affidavit to the
plaintiff’s originating summons, Jonathan averred that he took the
first oath of office on May 6, 2010, following Yar’Adua’s death.
Jonathan asked the court to dismiss the
suit on the grounds that the plaintiff had no locus standi to ask the
court to stop him from running for office in 2015.
He described the plaintiff’s claims as
“hypothetical and academic”, noting that he failed to disclose
reasonable cause of action.
The matter was adjourned to January 23, 2013.
Okeaya-Inneh said, “The question that
arises for determination is whether, having regard to the facts of this
case, he (Jonathan) is in his first or second term.
“In other words, given that the
Constitution prescribes a maximum of two terms of four years each
totaling a maximum of eight years as President, is he eligible to run
for re-election in 2015?
“In resolving this issue, the court is
invited to make a determination whether the period of May 6, 2010 to May
28, 2011 wherein Jonathan occupied the office of the President, can in
law be regarded as one term of office and relevance of the oath of
office Jonathan took on May 6, 2010 in computing the tenure of office of
Jonathan in line with sections 135 (1) and (2), 137 (1)(b), 140 (1) and
(2) and 146(1) of the 1999 Constitution.”
Why I can contest 2015 election – Jonathan
Reviewed by RCCG Strongtower
on
Thursday, November 22, 2012
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