A Federal High Court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, has ruled that former President Jonathan is eligible to contest the forthcoming 2023 presidential election on the grounds that he had only been elected into the office once in 2011.
Giving the judgment on Friday in a suit marked FHC/YNG/CS/86/2022, the presiding judge, Justice Isa Dashen, held that the argument of the plaintiff which was hinged on the introduction of Section 137, subsection 1b and 3 into the Constitution in 2018 could not be applied retrospectively to challenge the eligibility of Jonathan to run for president in 2023.
Recall that one Andy Solomon and Idibiye Abraham (plaintiffs) asked the court to prevent Jonathan from running for the office of president by invoking Section 137, subsection 1b and 3.
The section states that a person cannot take an oath for the office of the President more than twice, whether elected or constitutionally appointed to complete the tenure of a president.
But reading further, Justice Dashen said that before Section 137, subsection 1b and 3 was birthed in 2018, there was no clear restriction on the number of times a person should run for the office of president.
He said that even in the said section 137, subsections 1b and 3, the legislature did not clearly state if the law should be applied in retrospect or not.
Citing the case between Cyriacus Njoku and Goodluck Jonathan, Justice Dashen said that the Appeal court in 2014 ruled that Jonathan was eligible to run for the office of President and that since there had been no appeal to contest the judgement of the appellate court, from that moment, Jonathan acquired the right to run for president for a second term.
He said: “The office of the President is different from that of the Vice President and that is how the election into the two offices are different. Jonathan was constitutionally appointed to complete the office of the late president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. And when Jonathan took the oath of office in 2010, there was no general election in Nigeria.
“The only time he took the oath of office through the election was in 2011. And in 2014, Cyriacus Njoku took Jonathan to court and the appeal court ruled that he was eligible to contest the election. And after that judgement, there has been no further appeal on the matter. This simply means that if he had not lost the 2015 election, he would have taken the oath of office twice without any legal impediments.
“The section stating how many times a person can take an oath of office twice took effect from 2018. And that section cannot be applied retrospectively in this case because, for a law to be applied retrospectively, the legislature must state clearly the intention for the section to be applied retrospectively. I have taken the pain to go through the law, and there is nowhere the legislature stated it clearly that this section should be applied retrospectively.
“Based on these facts, the court holds that the suit seeking to declare the first defendant (Goodluck Jonathan) ineligible to run for the office of president for a second is dismissed.”
Speaking after the court session, counsel for the plaintiff, Egbu Seigha, said that “Jonathan is a good man who ruled this country with integrity and dignity. We don’t want him to transgress the law or slip into error. This is the reason we have instituted this action.
“The court has ruled otherwise. We are eager to get a copy of the judgement and take a look at it as an office. What I will assure everybody is that we will go to the appeal court to test it. We wish to maintain that the law should be applied as it is and not as it was or ought to be.”
Also speaking, counsel for the first defendant, Eric Omare, said: “We are happy with the judgement. If they wish to appeal, they have the right. But when we get to that bridge, we will cross it.”