The Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa declared that former President Goodluck Jonathan is eligible to contest the 2023 presidential election.
The presiding judge, Justice Isa Hamma Dashen gave the judgement on Friday.
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He also held that Jonathan’s right to vie for the office of president again cannot be stopped by any retroactive law.
In 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the fourth alteration of the 1999 Constitution which bars Vice-Presidents who succeed their principals from serving more than one full term.
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who was elected as Vice-President alongside the late President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007, was instated as President in 2010 after the demise of Yar’Adua. In 2011, he ran for election and was again inaugurated.
In 2015, while running for another term, the courts ruled that Jonathan was eligible to contest as his first inauguration was done to complete Yar’Adua’s tenure.
However, some have argued that the fourth alteration by Buhari ought not to apply to Jonathan as the law ought not to take a retroactive effect unless it was expressly stated.
