Amid the speculations that former President Goodluck Jonathan is on the verge of joining the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, a legal practitioner, Mike Ozekhome, has countered the position of his colleague, Femi Falana, (SAN), on the eligibility of the former to run for the 2023 presidency.
According to the foremost lawyer, “Jonathan is legally qualified to run”, adding that it would be “grossly unfair” to deny Jonathan the right to contest for the 2023 presidency when the county’s extant laws and court decisions permit him to do so.
Quest Times had earlier reported that Falana in his legal opinion, faulted the chances of the ex-president contesting in the presidential poll, citing Section 137(3) of the fourth alteration to the 1999 constitution, which reads thus;
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“A person who was sworn in to complete the term for which another person was elected as president shall not be elected to such office for more than a single term.”
Reacting, Ozekhome described Falana’s school of thought as having political undertone, while giving reasons why Jonathan is constitutionally qualified to contest in 2023.
“The truth of the matter is that the antagonists of Jonathan running in 2023, in their strange line of argument, are mainly relying on the above section 137(3),” Ozekhome said.
“They have probably not averted their minds to sections 141 of the Electoral Act, 2010, as amended, and section 285(13) of the same fourth alteration to the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which they are relying on.
“These antagonists did not take cognisance of a subsisting Court of Appeal decision in favour of Mr Jonathan when was similarly challenged for supposed ineligibility before the 2015 presidential election.
“The section 137(3) being relied upon by the antagonists was signed into law in 2018, three years after Jonathan had left office. Can he be caught in its web retrospectively?
“It is clear that those deliberately misinterpreting the clear position of the law may be baying for Jonathan’s blood, possibly as a potential candidate who may subvert the chances of their preferred candidates,” he said.
