SAN FRANCISCO, September 21, (THEWILL) – The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been dragged before the Federal High Court in Abuja over its plan to field President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo for the 2015 presidential elections.
Two lawyers, Mase Daphine Acho and Saeeq Umar Sarki, as well as Murtala Abubakar, who instituted the suit averred that President Jonathan and Vice President Sambo were ineligible to be elected president and vice president respectively.
Named as 1st to 4th defendants in the suit filed on Friday, September 19, are Jonathan, Sambo, PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) .
Their counsel, Mustapha Ibrahim, Mr. Abdul Mohammed and Aliyu Lemu, maintained that by virtue of the Supreme Court’s decision in Marwa V Nyako (2012) 6 NWLR (Part 1296) at 199, both Jonathan and Sambo were ineligible to be elected as President and Vice-President respectively.
Jonathan and Sambo, according to the counsel, have been shut out by the provisions of the constitution which states that no person can stay in office of the president and vice president for more than eight years.
“The current holders of the offices of the president and the vice president, at the expiration of their current terms in office would have held their respective office for a period of five years,” they said.
According to the legal team to the plaintiffs, Jonathan and Sambo had held office for two terms recognised by the 1999 constitution to wit; (i) the first term was held to conclude the un-expired term of the late president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua between the 6th May 2010 to 29th May 2011; (ii) The second term is still being served from the 29th May 2011 to 29th May 2015.
They therefore asked the court to declare that Jonathan and Sambo do not have the capacity to serve as president and vice president respectively for another term of four years after the completion of their current terms in office in view of the combined effect of the provisions of sections 135(2) (a) and 137(b) of the constitution.
The plaintiffs also want the court to declare that Jonathan and Sambo having already spent five years in office as president and vice president respectively are not eligible to contest for the office of president and vice president for another term of four years thereby amounting to a contravention of the combined provisions of sections 135(2) (a) and 137(b) of the constitution.
They also sought other reliefs including:
A declaration that the first oath of office subscribed to by Jonathan on May 6th, 2010, being the oath of office administered to him to occupy the office of president for the purpose of completion of the un-expired term of office of the late president Yar’adua must be taken into cognizance in computing the number of years that he has served and can serve as president, in determining the effect of the combined provisions of sections 135(2) (a) and 137(1)(b) of the constitution.
An order of the court restraining INEC from recognising Jonathan and Sambo as presidential and vice presidential candidates of the PDP or any other political party for the 2015 presidential elections.
The plaintiffs claimed that allowing Jonathan and Sambo to contest in the 2015 elections would amount to a breach of the 1999 constitution which Jonathan and Sambo swore to uphold.
They maintained that the intervention of the court was required for an interpretation of the provisions of the 1999 constitution.
They affirmed that it will be a colossal waste of resources to allow Jonathan and Sambo to run even when they were ineligible to contest.
However, the defendants are yet to file in their defence.
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