2015 presidential election Nigeria - A High Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) sitting in Maitama yesterday declared that President Goodluck Jonathan is eligible to contest the 2015 presidential election if he is interested.
The court before by Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi also held that President Jonathan's assumption of the office after the demise of former President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was in line with the declaration by the National Assembly in what it described as "doctrine of necessity" and not as a result of any bye-election after Yar'Adua's death.
Consequently, the judge declared that President Jonathan's tenure of office as president began from May 2011 when he first took oath and was sworn into office as the elected president of Nigeria and not May 6, 2010 when he assumed office following Yar'Adua's death.
"After the death of Umaru Yar'Adua, there was no election or bye election, President Jonathan was merely asked to assume the office of the president in line with the doctrine of necessity. He was not elected as the president but was made to assume office by virtue of Yar'Adua's death."
The judge's verdict was delivered following a suit filed by a PDP chieftain in Zuba ward in the FCT, Mr. Cyriakus Njoku, who had approached the court seeking for an order restraining President Jonathan from running in the 2015 presidential election.
"It is a victory for democracy." This is how the leadership of the (PDP described the ruling by the FCT High Court yesterday.
The party through its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement, said the judgment has laid to rest debates on whether or not the President is constitutionally eligible to contest the 2015 election, adding that it now depends on the party and Nigerians to decide when the time comes.
In what appeared to be a coincidence, President Jonathan yesterday basked in the euphoria of his victory at the Abuja high court poll as a mammoth crowd of Nigerians and Ivorians lined up the streets of Youmassokro, the capital of Cote D'Ivoire with flags to welcome him.
Jonathan, who is on a two-day state visit to that country, LEADERSHIP WEKEND gathered, drove in a car with open roof alongside his Ivorian host, President Allasane Quatarra from the City Hall to the Basilica, amidst rapturous applause from excited Ivorians and school children.
By George Agba, Stanley Nkwocha, and Iorakpen Ishu-Josef
Leadership/02/03/2013