by Stanley Azuakola

Followers of the court case instituted by a Peoples Democratic Party chieftain, Cyracus Njoku, seeking to prevent President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2015 presidential election were left disappointed today. Today was supposed to be judgement day for the suit, and reports say the verdict was ready. In spite of the verdict being ready, things did not go as planned, because the presiding judge, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi, of an Abuja High Court failed to show up in court.

The judge reportedly travelled “out of the jurisdiction,” but nobody knows if his absence was due to an official assignment or a conference or if he simply bowing to external pressure.

Njoku instituted the suit following Jonathan’s statement in March that he is only serving his first term in office as the elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. An upset Njoku urged the court to declare him unfit to contest the 2015 election as he is currently serving his second term of office.

It was this same Njoku, who had attempted to stop the president from contesting the 2011 presidential election on the ground that Jonathan’s candidacy was against the zoning principle of their party, PDP. He failed that time, as the court declined to disqualify the president, who the went on to contest and win the election.

Jonathan described the suit against him as frivolous and vexatious, as he has not even declared an ambition to contest in  2015.