Atiku, PDP lawyers, absent as Supreme Court justifies ruling in favour of Buhari

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the last presidential election, Atiku Abubakar are absent in court as the Supreme Court begins proceedings to explain the dismissal of an appeal by the party and its candidate against an earlier decision of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), which upheld the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Recall that the Supreme Court had, on October 30 dismissed the appeal and promised to give reasons for its decision.

However, when the court opened on Friday morning and the case was called, all of the petitioners’ lawyers were absent.

Also, none of the main opposition’s party’s known faces was in court as against the situation on October 30, 2019, when the chieftains of the party flooded the court.

Buhari’s lawyer, Alex Izinyon (SAN) drew the court’s attention to the strange development and noted that it was against the court’s rules for an appellant to stay away from court when a decision is being taken on the appeal.

According to him, no lawyer announced appearance for the appellants and wondered if hearing notices were not served on them.

In response to the development, the lead judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Okoro, said the appellants were served with hearing notices and that the court will proceed with the business of the day despite the appellants’ absence.