President Goodluck Jonathan

The Appeal of Court, Abuja, on Wednesday fixed 5 November, for hearing in an application filed by PDP member, Dr Umar Ardo, seeking to be joined in a suit against President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid.

Ardo, a presidential aspirant from Adamawa state brought the application to be joined in an appeal brought by Mr Cyriacus Njoku, challenging the eligibility of President Jonathan to seek re-election in 2015.

Njoku, who originally filed the suit and lost at the lower court, appealed against the judgment.

The Justice Abubakar Yahaya-led Court of Appeal panel fixed the date after listening to the submissions of the counsel in the suit.

At Wednesday’s resumed sitting, Dr Amuda Kannike (SAN), Ardo’s counsel, submitted that the respondents in the suit, that is, the President and the PDP, had filed separate counter-affidavits to his application.

Jonathan, through his lawyer, Mr Okeaya-Inneh (SAN) however, opposed the application and urged the court to dismiss it.

“The appellant has not shown sufficient interest in this appeal and how his interest will be affected by the outcome of the appeal,’’ Okeaya-Inneh said in his submission.

Justice Mubashiru Oniyangi of the FCT High Court had on 1 March 2013 decided the case in favour of Jonathan.

Ardo was, however, not a party to the suit at the lower court.

His counsel, Kannike in his submission, faulted the FCT High Court judgment.

He argued among others, that the lower court’s decision raised “grave points of constitutional law and jurisprudence that is the first of its kind in Nigeria.’’