Lawyer Explains Why New Case Challenging Jonathan's Eligibility to Contest against Tinubu is Illegal
- Senior Advocate Oba Maduabuchi says the fresh suit against former President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2027 ambition is an “abuse of court process"
- He insists that a competent court in Yenagoa has already ruled on Jonathan’s eligibility, and that judgment remains binding since it was never appealed
- Maduabuchi maintains that the 2018 constitutional amendment restricting two presidential oaths cannot apply retroactively to Jonathan’s case
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Oba Maduabuchi, has faulted the recent lawsuit challenging former President Goodluck Jonathan’s eligibility to contest the 2027 presidential election, describing it as an abuse of court process.
Speaking on The Morning Show on Arise TV, Maduabuchi said the issue of Jonathan’s eligibility had long been decided by a competent court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, and questioned why another suit was being entertained on the same subject in Abuja.
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"Let me start by saying that that suit in the Federal High Court, Abuja, is an abuse of court process,” he said.
“An abuse of court process is when you want to relitigate a case or an issue that has already been settled by a court of competent jurisdiction.”
The senior lawyer recalled that the Yenagoa division of the Federal High Court had ruled that Jonathan was qualified to contest, adding that since no appeal had been filed against that judgment, it remains binding. He said the fresh action before the Abuja court amounted to a deliberate attempt to reopen a matter that had already been resolved.
“The issue of the qualification or non-qualification of Dr Goodluck Jonathan has been settled by the court in Yenagoa. Nobody has taken that issue on appeal. And until that judgment is set aside, it remains what the law is, and anybody who decides that he wants to take it to a court of coordinate jurisdiction is simply abusing the process of the court and is a busybody,” Maduabuchi stated.
He explained that the key question lies in the state of the law at the time Jonathan held office, not in the amendments introduced later.
“But what controls a given situation is the position of the law when the act in issue was done. What was the position of the law in 2011?” he asked.
Section 137(3) of the 1999 Constitution, which was added in 2018, prohibits anyone who has been sworn in twice as president from seeking re-election. Jonathan, however, first assumed office in 2010 following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and again in 2011 after winning the election.
Maduabuchi argued that the amendment cannot retroactively disqualify Jonathan.
“When Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan took the oath of office as President of Nigeria, what was the position of the law? Was Section 137(3) part of our laws then? You already said the law came into effect in 2018. So, when Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was taking the oath of office to complete the tenure of Yar’Adua, there were no statutory limitations in existence then which could inhibit him from running his constitutionally guaranteed two terms. There was no inhibition. When in 2018 you brought in the amendment of Section 137(3), did Goodluck Ebele Jonathan take an oath as president after the amendment?” he said.
Former president Jonathan told to step aside
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the national coordinator of the Obidient Movement, Dr Yunusa Tanko, had called on former president Goodluck Jonathan to throw his weight behind Peter Obi’s presidential ambition ahead of the 2027 general election.
Speaking on Trust TV’s Daily Politics, Tanko said Jonathan owed Obi political support, recalling that the former Anambra State governor was the only state leader who stood firmly with him during moves to remove him from office.
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Source: Legit.ng
