The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, appears to have lost out on his claim to the Yobe North senatorial seat as the Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu has ordered the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise Bashir Machina as the senatorial candidate of the party.
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The presiding judge, Justice Fadima Murtala Aminu, in the ruling on the 4-month-old controversial APC primary for the senatorial district, nullified the parallel primary election that produced 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.
What you should know
- Justice Fadima Aminu had a few days ago reserved judgment on the tussle regarding the senatorial ticket after a heated argument between counsels to the plaintiff and the defendants.
- For months, Machina and Lawan who are representing Yobe North in the upper chamber have been at loggerheads over the ticket won by the former at the primary held on June 9, 2022.
- Lawan had contested the presidential primary of the ruling party at the same time as the senatorial primary was won by Machina. The Senate president, however, lost to Bola Tinubu, a development that forced him to jostle for the senatorial ticket but Machina insisted that he won’t step down.
- Machina had earlier distanced himself from the controversial notice of withdrawal from the race, which was purported to have emanated from him and went viral.
- The poorly written letter, which was dated September 4 and addressed to the APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said Machina had withdrawn and resigned from the party.
- Machina said the letter was forged as he never at any time resigned from the party nor withdrew from the race.
- Also, INEC, on August 9, 2022, denied recognizing Lawan and Senator Godswill Akpabio as senatorial candidates of the APC respectively.