The Supreme Court has affirmed Ahmed Lawan as the authentic candidate of Yobe North Senatorial District.
By Emma Ogbuehi
After months of rigorous legal processes, the Supreme has eventually affirmed Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, as the authentic All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District.
The apex court delivered the judgement on Monday. In a majority judgment, the Court allowed the appeal filed by the APC against Bashir Machina’s candidature.
Delivering the judgment, three out of a five-member panel agreed with the position of the APC that the suit at the trial court ought not to have commenced via an originating summons since it contained allegations of fraud.
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In the lead judgement, Justice Centus Nweze faulted the approach of Bashir Machina in commencing the suit at the Federal High Court Damaturu division by way of originating summons and without oral evidence to prove allegations of fraud.
“The bedrock of the suit shows that there were allegations of fraudulent practices against the appellants.
“That the 1st respondent accused the APC of fraudulently substituting his name with that of Lawan.
“Where there is an allegation of fraud it should not be commenced by an originating summons.
“There was a need to call witnesses to prove allegations of fraud”, Centus Nweze said
A Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu, Yobe State, had earlier, affirmed Bashir Sheriff Machina as the authentic candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Yobe North senatorial district in the 2023 elections.
Machina won unopposed during the senatorial primary organised by the party in May 2022.
But the senate president was said to have participated in another primary organised by the APC after he contested the presidential ticket unsuccessfully in June.
Machina was reportedly asked to step down for Lawan but he insisted that he is the rightful candidate.
Amid the controversy, the APC submitted the senate president’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the candidate for Yobe north.
The electoral commission subsequently refused to list any candidate for the district.
Aggrieved, Machina instituted a suit asking the court to declare him as the authentic senatorial candidate.
In September 2022, a federal high court in Damaturu, the Yobe capital, ordered the APC and INEC to recognise Machina as the candidate.
A month later, an Abuja Court of Appeal affirmed Machina’s election as the candidate of the APC for the Yobe north senatorial district.
Still not satisfied, the APC appealed the appellate court’s judgment.
Governor David Umahi and Godswill Akpabio had earlier won similar cases at the Supreme Court despite contesting in the Presidential Primary of APC.
