Court to determine Jonathan’s eligibility for 2015

PROCEEDINGS to determine the constitutionality or otherwise of President Goodluck Jonathan re-contesting the presidential election in 2015 will come up at the Federal High Court, Kaduna, which has fixed November 11, 2013, for mentioning of the suit on his eligibility.

   Filed by a chieftain of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Alhaji Shuaibu Lili, and of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Richard Nmenga, the case came up before Justice Evelyn Anyadike yesterday but could not be entertained because the defendants, President Jonathan and the PDP leadership, were said not to have been served hearing notice.
   However, counsel to the plaintiff, Mr. Tony Agaga, told the court that he was not in position to know whether the defendants were duly served with court notice regarding the case or not. He added that he was guided by the fact that since the suit was filed at the Kaduna division of the Federal High Court, the defendants would not feign ignorance of being served.
   Agaga told newsmen that they were in court for the constitutional interpretation of the 1999 Constitution as amended; as to whether the President was qualified to contest the 2015 presidential election.
   “We want the court to give a constitutional interpretation of the provision of the 1999 Constitution as amended as to whether President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is qualified to contest the 2015 presidential election. This is a fundamental constitutional question which we want the court to determine.”
   He added: “The defendants are not served yet and we discovered that we may require leave of court to serve them out of jurisdiction.
   “But actually, what I am pointing out to the honourable judge is, this is a Federal High Court and the jurisdiction of the court covers the entire federation except if you are going to Ghana to serve somebody, (then) you need leave.
   “However, to avoid arguments, we do that to accelerate the hearing. We don’t want to be taken aback by some technical issues.”

- The Guardian

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