The Supreme Court has affirmed Senator Ahmad Lawan as the authenticated candidate for the All Progressive Congress (APC) for the Yobe North Senatorial constituency in the forthcoming elections.
WikkiTimes reports that on Monday the Supreme Court confirmed Senator Lawan as the candidate for APC Yobe North.
The Supreme Court by a majority vote upheld the APC’s appeal against Bashir Machina’s candidacy.
The APC questioned Machina’s nomination as the party’s candidate for the Yobe North Senate constituency.
The party claimed that Nigeria’s Senate President, Lawan, was the bona fide Yobe North senatorial candidate for the upcoming general election.
At the final hearing of the appeal, APC counsel Sepiribo Peters argued that the primary election held on May 28, 2022 which produced Machina violated the 2022 Electoral Act.
Peters claimed that the team that ran the primary election that produced Machina was not nominated by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
He told the court that the APC canceled the primary due to irregularities observed during the exercise.
He claimed that another primaries, held on June 9, by the APC NWC elected Lawan as the party’s true candidate.
However, Machina’s counsel, Sarafa Yusuf, said the Senate President had not challenged the allegations in court, asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal on the grounds of lack of merit.
He also pointed out that Manga, who ran the primaries in which Machina appeared, was a member of the committee appointed by the NWC to run the exercise.