Ahmed Lawan and Bashir Machina
By Our Reporter
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has filed an appeal at the Supreme Court through the All Progressives Congress (APC) asking the apex court to declare him the senatorial candidate of APC for Yobe North and set aside the judgement of the trial and appellate courts which declared Bashir Machina as the rightful senatorial candidate for the party.
In the suit number FHC/DM/CS/11/2022, the APC is challenging the decision of the two lower courts that affirmed the candidature of Machina who won the May 28th primary election of the party.
The Supreme Court has fixed Wednesday, February 1, for the hearing of the suit.
It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld the senatorial candidacy of Machina.
The Appeal Court had in a unanimous judgment affirmed the earlier decision of the Federal High Court, Damaturu which declared Machina as the rightful senatorial candidate of APC for Yobe North.
The court dismissed the petition filed by the ruling party for being unmeritorious and awarded N1 million to Machina.
President of the Court, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem who delivered the judgement held that the lower court was right when it validated the May 28th APC senatorial primary election that produced Machina because it was duly monitored by INEC.
In June, a Federal High Court in Damaturu, Yobe State had declared Machina as the party’s senatorial candidate for Yobe North having emerged from a valid primary election that was conducted on May 28, 2022.
Though Lawan initially accepted the verdict and made public his decision not to appeal the judgement, he, however, made a U-turn and secretly sponsored an appeal at the Court of Appeal, Abuja.
Machina won the primary election organised by the APC in May 2022, while Lawan opted to contest the presidential primary election organised by the APC in June.
Lawan lost the APC presidential ticket to former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu.
However, Machina was asked to step down for Lawan but he insisted that he would not withdraw for the Senate President.
Amid the controversy, the APC submitted the Senate President’s name to INEC as its senatorial candidate for Yobe North.
Unsatisfied with the development, Machina headed to court to seek redress. Specifically, Machina in his suit asked the court to declare him as the validly elected senatorial candidate of the APC for the 2023 election.
Justice Aminu nullified the parallel primary election that produced Lawan on June 9, 2022.
Consequently, the trial judge ordered the APC to forward the name of Machina to INEC as the authentic winner of the primary held in May 2022.
