Jonathan’s tenure shall end on May 29, 2015 – plaintiff

President Goodluck Jonathan with Amb. B Wokalek, German Head of Protocol walking through the Guard of Honour mounted by German soldiers for the President's Visit.

In a dramatic twist of events, the man who went to court to secure an order barring President Goodluck Jonathan from vying for presidency in 2015, Mr. Cyriacus Njoku, Wednesday, applied to withdraw the suit.

The plaintiff made the application on a day an Abuja High Court struck out a motion that was filed before it by President Jonathan, seeking the extension of time within which his lawyers could file his memorandum of appearance and counter affidavit in opposition to the suit dated March 20.
This was even as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has challenged the competence of the suit, insisting that President Jonathan could contest the 2015 election if he so wishes.
When the matter was called up for hearing yesterday, counsel to the plaintiff, Mr Ugochukwu Osuagwu, informed presiding Justice Mudashiru Onyangi that his client had accepted to explore the possibility of an out of court settlement of the case.


He told the court that the PDP ward in Zuba, Gwagwalada Area Council of Abuja, where his client belongs, persuaded him to discontinue further hearing on the case, though he stressed that the plaintiff would not hesitate to re-activate the case should the negotiation process crumble.
Nevertheless, the plaintiff urged the court to in the meantime, dismiss President Jonathan’s application for extension of time on grounds that the motion was legally incompetent since an affidavit that was attached in support of the motion was sworn to at the Federal High Court Registry instead of the FCT High Court registry where the substantive originating summon was entered.
Likewise, Njoku noted that both the counter affidavit and memorandum of appearance that was filed on behalf of Jonathan, were neither exhibited nor attached to the motion as stipulated in Order 12 of the High Court Procedure Rules.
Consequent upon his arguments, Justice Onyangi accordingly struck out the application, even as he yesterday fixed May 30 for possible report of settlement between all the parties.
Whereas President Jonathan and the PDP were represented in court yesterday, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which was joined as the 3^rd defendant in the suit, was not represented.
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