Daniel Makolo, a legal practitioner has taken President Muhammadu Buhari to court for failing to appoint a minister from Kogi State to replace the late Minister of State for Labour and Employment, James Ocholi.

Makolo filed the suit at the Federal High Court, Lokoja on Thursday, praying the court to declare that the President’s failure to appoint a qualified indigene of Kogi as a Minister after Ocholi’s death was “wrongful, unlawful and unconstitutional.”

Recall that Ocholi died in a road accident on his way to Abuja from Kaduna, alongside his wife and son on March 6 this year.

Makolo said the president had “denied the people of Kogi state representation at the statutory mandatory regular meetings held by the president with his vice and ministers”.

He asked the court to issue an order compelling the president to appoint a minister representing the people of Kogi.

“This is not an optional responsibility; it is mandatory which our beloved President has deliberately failed, neglected or refused to do in respect of Kogi State and her people,” Makolo said.

The legal practitioner also wants the court to declare every decision or resolution reached at statutory meeting(s) held as void “to the extent of its effect on the life and property of the people of Kogi.”

Makolo asked the court to void the resolution reached at subsequent meetings to be held by the president and his cabinet without a representative of Kogi People,

He is also seeking for an order to compel the president to respect and apply Section 14 (3) of the Constitution in all his appointments including those of the “heads of coercive forces of the sovereignty of Nigeria, the paramilitary agencies, and all arm-bearing institutions of Nigeria.”

In addition, the applicant sought an order directing the Attorney-General of the Federation to initiate and carry out a corona inquest into the Sunday, March 6, death of Ocholi on Kaduna-Abuja road to uncover and make public the actual and remote causes of the accident.

The Senate President and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice were also joined in the suit.