The Supreme Court has struck out the suit filed by the Senate, challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Lawyer to the Senate, Paul Erokoro (SAN) told the court when the case was called on Tuesday, that he filed a notice of discontinuance on Monday.
Erokoro, who said the notice of discontinuance had been served on the defendants, was silent on why the plaintiff chose to discontinue the case.
Lawyer to President Buhari, Mrs. Maimuna Lami-Shiro, who led Tijani Gazali, confirmed being served with the notice but said she was served few minutes before the court sat.
Mrs. Lami-Shiro did not object to the plaintiff’s decision to withdraw the case.
In a unanimous ruling, a seven-man panel of the court, led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, struck out the suit.
Although a lawyer, Chief A. A. Adeniyi, announced appearance for the party seeking to be joined in the suit (the All Progressives Congress caucus in the Senate), the court could not hear his application in view of the plaintiff’s notice of discontinuance.
The Senate had, by the suit marked: SC76/2019, queried among others, the constitutionality of the suspension of the CJN by President Buhari.
