Opeyemi Bamidele, an All Progressives Congress senator, has called President Muhammadu Buhari to follow federal character principles and avoid appointing people into national positions based on ethnic ties.

Mr Bamidele, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, stated this during the screening of Salisu Garba Abdullahi as the chief judge of the FCT High Court.

“To urge all the stakeholders who participate in the process of executive and judicial appointments in this country, especially individuals and bodies saddled with the responsibility of making recommendations to the president and commander-in-chief of our dear country, to ensure compliance with both the eligibility criteria, as well as the Federal Character principle, established in our constitution in order to avoid unnecessarily heating up the polity and eroding the unity and strength of our country and in the process, weakening the foundation of our country as well as the hope of its federating units,” said Mr Bamidele.

Speaking further, he noted, “We have an extremely bright and exciting future in one indivisible and indissoluble nation that is propelled by unity in diversity, and all hands must be on deck to ensure this aspiration is guided jealously.

“This shall remain our guiding principle in the 9th Senate under Senator Ahmad Lawan’s watch as we continue to guard jealously the spirit and letters of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which we all swore to protect in the overriding public and national interests.”