A former Minister of Youth Affairs, Mr. Inuwa Abdulkadir, has called on the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN) to stop President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2015 presidential election on the ground that such an action is unconstitutional and tantamount to a third term.
Abdulkadir, who was appointed a minister by Jonathan before he was fired in August 2013, stated this in a letter he addressed to the AGF.
The former minister, who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) shortly after his sack and became interim chairman of the party in Sokoto State, urged Adoke to take a judicial notice of the fact that Jonathan’s declaration for 2015 presidency indicated that the president would spend more than eight years. He also cited Sections 135 (ii) and (2) (b) of the 1999 constitution, as amended, to press home his point.
Abdulkadir’s letter, dated November 11, 2014 and made available to journalists, reads in part, “Firstly, without at all intending to be patronizing, your timely intervention would afford the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) opportunity to field a qualified person as its candidate for the office of the President. Secondly, to avoid the enormous waste of fast dwindling national resources in conducting a presidential election with an unqualified person and the acrimony and tensions that results of such elections have been known to breed in Nigeria.
“Thirdly, your intervention would save the courts from the unwarranted trouble of having to be repeating itself on the same issues as were decided in the case of Marwa supra”.
