Buhari, AGF, senate absent from suit opposing CJN’s appointment

President Muhammadu Buhari, the attorney general of the federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami and the senate today failed to send legal representatives to the federal high court in Abuja for the scheduled hearing of the suit challenging the appointment of Justice Tanko Muhammad as the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria.

The federal government, joined as the forth defendant in the suit, was also not represented by a lawyer.

The judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, had on May 3, 2019 directed the seven defendants in the suit, including Buhari and the AGF and senate to appear in court today.

Justice Ekwo had issued the order after rejecting the plaintiff’s ex-parte application on the grounds that the prayer sought in it could not be granted in the absence of the defendants.

Report says only three of the defendants, the national judicial council, the federal judicial service commission and justice Muhammad, sent lawyers to today’s proceedings.