A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the suit challenging former President Goodluck Jonathan’s eligibility to contest the 2027 presidential election, finding the case frivolous, vexatious, and without legal merit, and ordering the plaintiff to pay Jonathan 20 million naira and the Attorney-General of the Federation one million naira in costs.
Justice Peter Lifu dismissed the suit filed by Abuja-based lawyer Johnmary Jideobi, upholding preliminary objections filed by Jonathan’s legal team led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN. The court found that Jideobi had failed to demonstrate any cause of action, any rights personally violated, or any injury that gave him legal standing to bring the suit. Justice Lifu noted that identical eligibility challenges had already been dismissed by the Court of Appeal and by a Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, and that he was bound by those decisions.
The court held that Jonathan’s assumption of the presidency following the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua did not constitute an elected presidential term under the constitution, and that his 2011 election and subsequent first term was therefore the only elected term counted against his constitutional two-term limit. Two prior court judgements tendered by Jonathan’s legal team confirmed this interpretation, with the Court of Appeal explicitly holding that the succession from Yar’Adua’s death did not count as an elected tenure within the constitutional framework.
Justice Lifu also dismissed a motion seeking his recusal from the case, describing it as a deliberate effort to delay and frustrate proceedings. He characterized the conduct of both Jideobi and his counsel Ndubuisi Ukpai, noting both were legal practitioners, as discouraging and disheartening.
Ini Ememobong, National Publicity Secretary of the Turaki-led Peoples Democratic Party, said the judgement completely cleared the pathway for Jonathan’s presidential mission, adding that the party had already granted him a screening waiver ahead of primaries scheduled for May 28, 2026.
