PDP recently endorse their presidential ticket for 2015 Election
to the ruling President Jonathan, obviously this is did not go well with many
as Two lawyers, Mase Daphine Acho and Saeeq Umar Sarki, as well as Murtala
Abubakar have dragged the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 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.
According to the lawyers, 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.
Source:
DailyTimes
4 comments:
na so those lawyers want to be famous
It won't get them anywhere
Honestly what is the problem with all this people...
We will soon find out who seat on Aso Villa. Few months to go
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