Machina loses as Supreme Court okays Lawan as APC candidate in Yobe North

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Supreme Court okays Lawan as Apc candidate for Yobe North
President of the Nigerian Senate, Ahmad Lawan

 

Admin l Tuesday, February 7, 2023

 

ABUJA, Nigeria -Bashir Machina finally lost in his battle to be the candidate of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC for Yobe North, following the ruling of the Supreme Court which made President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan as the authentic APC candidate for Yobe North.

The decision was however not unanimous. Machina lost by technicalities and not based on facts of the case as based on the amended Electoral Act.

In the majority judgment,  read by Justice Centus Nweze, the court  held that Lawan’s major challenger, Bashir Machina, was wrong to have commenced his suit at the trial court via an originating summons in view of his allegations that the APC acted fraudulently in submitting Lawan’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as it’s candidate.

According to Nweze,  Machina ought to have commenced the suit at the trial court via a writ of summons, as against an originating summons, since the objections he  raised are allegations of fraud.

“The bedrock of the suit shows that there were allegations of fraudulent practices against the appellant. That the 1st respondent (Machina) 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,” Justice Nweze said.

He held that the earlier decisions of the Federal High Court (Yobe) and the subsequent one Court of Appeal (Abuja), affirming Machina as the APC candidate for Yobe North “were perverse and must be set aside.”

In his lead dissenting opinion Justice Adamu Jauro faulted the APC’s primary held on June 9, 2022, from which Lawan emerged as the party’s candidate.

Justice Jauro dismissed the appeal by the APC and awarded a cost of N3million against the party and in favour of Machina.

Justice Emmanuel Agim, who also disagreed with the majority decision and affirmed what he described as the brilliant judgment of the appellate court as to the appropriateness of the use of originating summons.

Justice Agim noted that relevant facts showed the withdrawal of the senate president from the senatorial race to pursue his presidential bid.

The judge further noted that facts in the case showed that Machina won the senatorial primary, adding that the APC did not give INEC 21 days’ mandatory notice before going ahead to conduct another primary election on June 9.

He held that APC did not cancel the May 28 election before going ahead to conduct another primary election and went ahead to conduct another primary in June 9  which was not monitored by INEC

 

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