Nigeria, May 12 -- A suit seeking to stop former President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2027 presidential election suffered a setback on Monday at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The judge, Peter Lifu, was forced to postpone proceedings due to the absence of the lawyers to most of the parties to the suit.

Mr Lifu took the decision to fix a new hearing date after rejecting Mr Jonathan's legal team's vehement call to throw out the suit on grounds of lack of diligent prosecution.

The plaintiff, Johnmary Jideobi, who is a lawyer, was absent from Monday's proceedings and had no legal representation.

Also, two defendants, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), had no ...