ABUJA COURT SAYS PRESIDENT JONATHAN IS ELIGIBLE TO RUN IN 2015

An Abuja High Court today dismissed a suit filed by Chief Cyriachus Njoko, stopping President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2015 presidential election.

Read the judgment of  thejudge, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi , below;

“The first defendant (Jonathan) neither contested the office of the president before 2011 nor got nomination of his party to contest same election before 2011. Jonathan, to my knowledge, in 2007 contested the general election as a vice president and nothing more. In the case of Jonathan, his mere assumption of the office of the President was necessitated by what the National Assembly described as doctrine of necessity because of the demise of late President Umar Yar’Adua.

Jonathan’s emergence as President on May 6, 2010 did not amount to his being elected; and so, the action did not give credence to the allegation of first oath taking. In the circumstance of the forgoing, Jonathan is just serving his first tenure, and therefore free to seek nomination of his party or any other political party if he so wishes to fulfill his presidential ambition,’’ he said.

Being a card-carrying member of the second defendant (PDP) and a tax payer does not yet bestow locus on the plaintiff. The court views the action as being hasty and premature as the second defendant has not gotten the PDP nomination to contest the 2015 election yet. The plaintiff will, however, be bestowed with `locus’ if only he had expressed interest to contest the presidential election and dully participated in the primaries.

The suit is hereby dismissed for lacking in merit as it is premature. The plaintiff is ordered to pay the sum of N20, 000 as cost for damages to the defendants. Let me, however, say here that this decision is not by any means a declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan as a sole candidate of the PDP in the forthcoming 2015 general elections,’’ he said.

An Abuja High Court on Friday dismissed a suit that sought to bar President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2015 presidential election.
It will be recalled that Chief Cyriachus Njoko, a member of the PDP, filed the suit in March 2012.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/03/court-clears-president-jonathan-for-2015-election/#sthash.ekIkCYda.dpuf

An Abuja High Court on Friday dismissed a suit that sought to bar President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2015 presidential election.
It will be recalled that Chief Cyriachus Njoko, a member of the PDP, filed the suit in March 2012.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/03/court-clears-president-jonathan-for-2015-election/#sthash.ekIkCYda.dpuf

Chief Cyriachus Njoko, a member of the PDP, filed the suit in March 2012. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/03/court-clears-president-jonathan-for-2015-election/#sthash.ekIkCYda.dpuf

Chief Cyriachus Njoko, a member of the PDP, filed the suit in March 2012. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/03/court-clears-president-jonathan-for-2015-election/#sthash.ekIkCYda.dpuf