2023: Ozekhome Counters Falana, Says Jonathan Qualified to Contest
POLITICS DIGEST- Renowned lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, has pushed back claims by colleague Femi Falana that former President, Goodluck Jonathan, is not qualified to run for the office he lost to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
Mr. Ozekhome, said that the former Nigerian leader is “constitutionally” qualified to contest the presidency in 2023.
This comes amidst rife speculation that Jonathan may defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to contest in the 2023 presidential election.
In a legal opinion released on Friday, Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, said 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.
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“The truth of the matter is that the antagonists of Jonathan running in 2022, 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.”
Mr. Ozekhome further noted that ‘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?” Mr Ozekhome queried.
“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.”
