A lawsuit seeking to block former President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2027 presidential election stalled on Monday after no lawyer appeared for the plaintiff or the other defendants.
The suit, filed by lawyer Johnmary Jideobi before Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, was called with only Jonathan’s counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), present.
Uche asked the court to strike out the case for lack of diligent prosecution, saying that Jideobi and his lawyer, Ndubuisi Ukpai, were absent without explanation.
“My Lord, what it means is that they have lost interest in pursuing the suit,” Uche said, adding that processes had already been exchanged and urging the court to dismiss the case with substantial costs.
Therefore, the judge asked the registrar to confirm service on INEC and the AGF, the 2nd and 3rd defendants.
Neither had been served.
Citing fair hearing, Justice Lifu declined to strike out the suit and adjourned to May 15 for a definite hearing.
“Let us give them time. Let this order be served on INEC because INEC is fundamental in this case,” he said, ordering that hearing notices be served on all parties for the last time.
Goodluck Jonathan, in a preliminary objection, argued that Jideobi lacked the legal standing to file the suit and described the case as speculative and an abuse of court process.
He also argued that the issues raised had already been settled by a subsisting judgment of the Federal High Court in Yenagoa and urged the court to strike out the suit for want of jurisdiction.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2102/2025, was filed on Oct. 6, 2025, with the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation joined as defendants.
