For an umpteenth time, Nigeria’s Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, has failed to fly as Yobe North Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to Bashir Machina.
Lawan has represented the area in both House of Representatives and Senate for more than 23 years.
This was as Federal High Court in Damaturu Wednesday ordered APC and Independent National Electoral Commission to recognise Machina as the senatorial candidate of the party.
Read also: Why INEC Disqualified Lawan, Akpabio, Umahi- Okoye
The presiding judge, Justice Fadima Murtala Aminu, nullified the parallel primary election that produced the Senate President, Lawan, on June 9, 2022.
But, the judge ordered the APC to forward the name of Machina to INEC as the authentic winner of the primary held in May.
“In the final analysis, the conditions for the validity of primary elections were fulfilled in the election of May 28, 2022, which produced the plaintiff. The phantom election of June 9 2022 which produced the second defendant is hereby declared invalid in view of the outline provision of the law of the very primary election.
“Consequently, the plaintiff has hereby declared the validly elected candidate of the first defendant of the Yobe North senatorial candidate of the first defendant conducted on 28/05/2022 for the 2023 general election.
“The first defendant is hereby ordered to prepare the name and details of the plaintiff to the third defendant as its rightful candidate. This is my decision,” Aminu ruled.
Straightnews reports that Lawan, Akpabio, and Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, had chosen to pick Senate tickets for Yobe North, Ebonyi South and Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial Districts respectively, after losing out at the presidential primaries of the APC.
