Court denies Lawan, declares Machina’s APC senatorial candidate
The Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu has ordered the All Progressives Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission to recognise Bashir Machina as Yobe North senatorial candidate of the party.
The presiding judge, Justice Fadima Murtala Aminu, nullified the parallel primary election that produced the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, on June 9, 2022.
The judge also ordered the APC to forward the name of Machina to INEC as the authentic winner of the primary held in May.
“In the final analysis, the conditions for the validity of primary elections were fulfilled in the election of May 28, 2022, which produced the plaintiff. The phantom election of June 9 2022 which produced the second defendant is hereby declared invalid in view of the outline provision of the law of the very primary election.
“Consequently, the plaintiff has hereby declared the validly elected candidate of the first defendant of the Yobe North senatorial candidate of the first defendant conducted on 28/05/2022 for the 2023 general election.
“The first defendant is hereby ordered to prepare the name and details of the plaintiff to the third defendant as its rightful candidate. This is my decision,” Aminu ruled.
The judgement was coming weeks after Machina distanced himself from notice of withdrawal from the race which has since gone viral.
A copy of the notice obtained by our correspondent showed a letter allegedly written by Machina addressed to the party’s National Chairman stating his withdrawal from the Yobe North senatorial race.
The PUNCH had on August 9, 2022, reported that INEC denied recognising Lawan and Senator Godswill Akpabio as senatorial candidates of the APC respectively.
Both Lawan and Akpabio had contested the APC Presidential primaries. However, after losing, both of them were listed as senatorial candidates by the APC, but INEC refused to recognise them.
The PUNCH reports that Lawan, Akpabio, and Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, had chosen to pick Senate tickets for Yobe North, Ebonyi South and Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial Districts respectively, after losing out at the presidential primaries of the APC.
Punch
