Court Sacks Lawan, Orders INEC To Recognise Machina As Senatorial Candidate
Reports reaching Business Africa Digest indicates that a Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu Yobe State has sacked Senate Ahmad Lawan, and ordered INEC to Recognise Machina As Senatorial Candidate.
The Court ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept and publish the name of Bashir Sheriff Machina as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for Yobe North senatorial district in 2023.
The declaration was made by the presiding judge, Justice Fadima Aminu on Wednesday.
In her verdict, the judge affirmed Machina as the duly and validly elected candidate for APC, thereby upholding the May 28 primary election of the party that produced him.
Machina had asked the court to declare him authentic senatorial flagbearer of the APC for the 2023 election.
He had emerged the winner of the primary election supervised by INEC officials earlier in the year. The senate president did not participate in the primary.
At the time the exercise was held, Lawan was pursuing his presidential ambition but lost to former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu.
Rather than submit the name of the elected candidate, the name of the senate president was submitted to the commission by the ruling APC, a move that led to the deliberate omission of their names from the published particulars of candidates late June.
To clarify the brewing controversy around the seat, INEC, on at least two different occasions, said it rejected the senate president’s name because he had not been validly nominated for the senatorial seat.
The commission, however, urged the duo to resolve their issues internally or seek redress in court.
Machina however filed a suit before a Federal High Court, Damaturu to challenge the APC National Working Committee’s decision.
