Jonathan challenges eligibility suit, picks nomination form

By Ben Agande & Ikechukwu Nnochiri

Abuja—President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday prayed the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal to dismiss the suit challenging his eligibility to seek re-election next year, even as he said he will formally pick the nomination form today to contest the presidential election under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

President Jonathan

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, who announced the President’s decision to take the form today also revealed that already, various groups and individuals have contributed various sums of money totalling N98.75 to the President to pay for the form.

The cost of the PDP’s nomination form for the presidential election is N22m.

According to the Presidential spokesman, individuals and groups that contributed money for the President to Purchase the form include the PDP Governors Forum; N22m; the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, N22m; Ogbia LGA Stakeholders, Bayelsa State, N5m and Otuoke Community Stakeholders, N2m.

Othere are the Bayelsa State PDP Stakeholders, N5m; Northern Youths Forum, N2m; Central Market Traders Union, Kaduna State, N1m; PDP Stakeholders, Zaria LGA, N500, 000; PDP Stakeholders, Yobe State, N500, 000 and PDP Stakeholders, Kaduna State, N2m.

Other groups that also made donations to the president include, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, N5m; The Goodluck Support Group, Gombe State, N1m; Adamawa State PDP Stakeholders, N3m; Ebonyi State PDP Stakeholders, N2m; Kogi State PDP Stakeholders, N5m; Rivers State PDP Stakeholders, N5m; The 2015 Project, N1m; Team Goodluck, Ondo North Senatorial District, N5m.

Others include Middle Belt PDP Women Support Group for GEJ 2015, N500, 000; King David Generation Foundation, Jos, N200, 000; Behwong Weneng Yere Duk, Jos, N200,000; Redemption 3 Youth Organization, Plateau State – N500, 000; Plateau State Indigenes Association, Abuja, N300,000; Gombe Youth United for Goodluck Ebele Jonathan 2015, N500, 000; Gombe Youth Vanguard for PDP, N500, 000; Yamahu/Deba Goodluck Support Group, N200, 000 and Coalition of Gombe Support Groups for Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, N2m

The rest include: Hinna Youth Coalition for Goodluck, N500, 000; Nigerian Women Pray for Jonathan, N1m; National Association of Widows, N100, 000; National Council of Women Societies, N500, 000; Female members of the PDP Board of Trustees, N500,000; Joint Association of Persons with Disabilities, N100,000; National Association of Market Women, N500, 000 and Community Awareness and Development Network, N1m.

Two individuals, Mr. Kennedy Ikenna Odoeme and Mr Ezemagu Sunday Nnamdi donated N5,000 and N10,000 respectively.

The Presidential Spokesman said President Jonathan expressed appreciation to all “Nigerians, members of the PDP, friends, associates, and all groups who in sincere appreciation of the achievements of the administration in the last four years, have been urging him to seek a second term in office.

“President Jonathan is greatly encouraged by the overwhelming outpouring of goodwill and support, as well as the confidence of the generality of Nigerians in his ability to continue to transform the country for the good of all of its people.

“The President is also grateful to all the persons, groups and communities who have sent donations, and made pledges to assist him to pay the required N22 million for the PDP Presidential Nomination Fee and Expression of Interest Form.

“President Jonathan assures the donors that he will continue to do his utmost best at all times to fully justify the great confidence they have placed in his leadership” he said.

Jonathan seeks dismissal of suit against his eligibility

On the suit challenging his eligibility to seek re-election, President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, prayed the Court of Appeal Abuja to dismiss the appeal for being legally defective.

This was even as an aggrieved Presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from Adamawa State, Dr. Umar Ardo, yesterday, begged the appellate court to join him as an interested party in the suit, insisting that President Jonathan lacks the legal imprimatur to remain in office beyond 2015.

Ardo, in an application he filed through a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr. A. Amuda Kannike, urged the appeal court panel to allow him to join as an appellant in the substantive appeal filed against Jonathan by a PDP member, Mr. Cyriacus Njoku, challenging the verdict of Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi of an Abuja High Court which had on March 1, 2013, declared President legally fit to vie for re-election next year.

Aside Jonathan, other respondents in the suit are the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Njoku who is a registered member of the PDP in Zuba ward, Abuja, in his appeal, insisted that the lower court misinterpreted the law, even as he urged the court to go ahead and determine “Whether Section 135(2) of the Constitution, which specifies a period of four years in office for the President, is only available or applicable to a person elected on the basis of an actual election or includes one in which a person assumes the position of President by operation of law, as in the case of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.”

Insisting that Jonathan is constitutionally barred from contesting the Presidency in 2015, Cyriacus, further prayed the court to determine “Whether Section 137(1) (b) of the Constitution, which provides that a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President, if he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections, applies to the first defendant, who first took an oath of office as substantive President on May 6, 2010 and took a second oath as President on May 29, 2011.”

He is also seeking a declaration that ‘the President’s tenure of office began on May 6, 2010 when his first term began and his two terms shall end on May 29, 2015 after taking his second oath of office on May 29, 2011; and by virtue of Section 136 (1) (b) of the Constitution, no person (including the first defendant) shall take the oath of allegiance and the oath of office prescribed to in the Seventh Schedule to this Constitution more than twice.

He further asked the court for an order of injunction restraining President Jonathan from further contesting or attempting to vie for President after May 29, 2015 when his tenure shall by the Nigerian Constitution end.

However, shortly after the appellate court okayed the case for hearing, Ardo, applied to be joined as a party, stressing that the outcome of the matter would personally affect him since the PDP had already adopted the 1st Respondent, Jonathan, as its sole candidate for the impending Presidential poll.

While challenging his locus standi to be joined in the matter, Jonathan, through his lawyer Chief Ade Okeaya-Inneh, SAN, urged the court to even go ahead and dismiss the substantive appeal filed by Njoku’s lawyers led by Mr. Obono Oblah and Ugochukwu Osuagwu for want of merit.

In an 18 paragraphed counter affidavit deposed to by one Kenechukwu Nomeh, he branded the appeal as “legally defective”, adding that Dr. Ardo’s application was filed beyond the period approved by the constitution.

He noted that whereas the main appeal was filed on April 16, 2013, the applicant, waited till September 23 to apply with a view to be allowed to seek his disqualification from participating in the 2015 election.

“That I have seen and read a copy of the Motion on Notice and affidavit as an interested party in this appeal. That the Applicants application dated September 23, 2014 does not comply with the provisions of section 24 of the Court of Appeal Act, Cap. C36 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria and section 243 (a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

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Jonathan challenges eligibility suit, picks nomination form