The Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa has ruled that former President Goodluck Jonathan is eligible to contest the 2023 presidential election.
The presiding judge, Justice Isa Hamma Dashen gave the judgement on Friday.
He also held that Jonathan’s right to vie for the office of president again cannot be stopped by any retroactive law.
Jonathan has been linked to the APC Presidential race as a group purchased the N100 million forms for him.
However, there have been different positions on his eligibility for the 2023 presidential election.
But on Friday, the court held that Jonathan, who lost the 2015 election to President Muhammadu Buhari, could still vie for the highest office in the land.
In an origination summons filed by Andy Solomon and Idibiye Abraham, the plaintiffs were seeking an order of the court stating that Jonathan is not affected by the fourth alteration to the constitution barring Vice-Presidents who succeed their principals from serving more than one full term.
In the suit marked FHC/YNG/CS/86/2022 before Justice Isa Dashen, the All Progressives Congress, Jonathan and the Independent National Electoral Commission are listed as defendants.
The court granted an accelerated hearing of the suit “having regard to the nature of the suit and the reliefs sought therein.”
A human rights lawyer Femi Falana had said former President Goodluck Jonathan is not eligible to contest the 2023 presidential election.
Falana stated this while to speculations that the former president might contest the election on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) argued that the Amended Section 137 (3) of the 1999 Constitution barred Jonathan from participating in the polls.
“The former President is disqualified from contesting the said election by virtue of 137 (3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended,” Falana said in a statement he released on Thursday.
The section was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018.
It makes it difficult for a vice president or deputy who completes the term of their principals from holding the respective offices more than once.
“A person who was sworn in to complete the term for which another person was elected as President shall not be elected to such office for more than a single term,” the section stated.
A president or governor’s term could be cut short by reasons of death or resignation, paving the way for their their deputies to complete their terms.
Jonathan was sworn in 2010 to complete the tenure of late President Umaru Yar’Adua after he died while still in his first term in office.
