{"id":76210,"date":"2025-10-07T21:28:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T21:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=76210"},"modified":"2025-10-07T21:28:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T21:28:32","slug":"jonathans-2027-eligibility-lawsuit-baseless-says-san","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/10\/07\/jonathans-2027-eligibility-lawsuit-baseless-says-san\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan\u2019s 2027 Eligibility Lawsuit Baseless, Says SAN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Oba Maduabuchi, has dismissed as baseless a lawsuit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja challenging former President Goodluck Jonathan\u2019s eligibility to contest the 2027 presidential election, describing it as a clear abuse of court process.<\/p>\n<p>Maduabuchi argued that the issue had already been resolved by a competent court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, where a judgment affirming Jonathan\u2019s eligibility was delivered and remains legally binding.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Arise TV\u2019s Morning Show, the senior lawyer emphasized that the Bayelsa judgment, which upheld Jonathan\u2019s right to contest, has not been appealed and therefore stands as the subsisting legal position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUntil that judgment is overturned by a higher court, it remains the law,\u201d Maduabuchi stated, stressing that any fresh suit on the same matter before a court of similar jurisdiction amounts to judicial abuse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuch efforts are not only redundant but constitute legal mischief by meddlesome interlopers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the constitutional argument raised in the suit, particularly the 2018 amendment to Section 137(3) of the 1999 Constitution, Maduabuchi explained that the provision cannot be applied retroactively to disqualify Jonathan.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that Jonathan assumed office in 2010 following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar\u2019Adua, and at that time, no such legal restriction existed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe law in force when an act occurred governs that act. In 2010 and 2011, when Jonathan took the oath of office, there was no Section 137(3). That provision came into effect in 2018 long after he had left office,\u201d he clarified.<\/p>\n<p>Maduabuchi insisted that Jonathan\u2019s eligibility for any future presidential contest is firmly rooted in existing law and that any contrary legal challenge \u201clacks merit and legal foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal &nbsp; Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Oba Maduabuchi, has dismissed as baseless a lawsuit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja challenging former President Goodluck Jonathan\u2019s eligibility to contest the 2027 presidential election, describing it as a clear abuse of court process. Maduabuchi argued that the issue had already been resolved [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":76211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76212,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76210\/revisions\/76212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}