Court of Appeal affirms Bashir Sheriff Machina as the authentic candidate of the APC for Yobe North Senatorial District
The court of appeal Abuja division has upheld the judgment of the federal high court sitting Damaturu which held that President of the senate Ahmad Lawan, is not the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for Yobe North Senatorial District in next year’s election into the National Assembly.
The court had submitted that Mr Lawan did not participate in the legally recognised primary election of the APC to select its candidate in the election held on 28th May 2022.
Delivering judgment on the appeal filed by the President of the Senate, a 3-member panel of the appellate court led by justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, held that the primary election conducted by the party on 9th June is invalid as it was in breach of the constitution.
The law is settled as to INEC’s involvement in party primaries, which is to monitor, the primaries of 9th June were not monitored by the electoral commission.
The APC made a case at the appellant court for itself and it preferred candidate Ahmed Lawan but failed to make him a co-appellant.
Mr Lawan appeared in the case as the 2nd respondent indicating that he and the APC were working at cross purposes while trying to achieve a goal.
The appeal is unmeritorious as it fails in its entirety
The appellant (APC) is to pay the sum of an N1 million to the Ist respondent ( Bashir Sheriff) as cost.
The issue of who the authentic candidate of the All Progressives Congress is between Bashir Machina and Senator Ahmad Lawan, the President of the Senate for the Yobe North Senatorial district has been on for a few months now following the decision of the party to hold another primary after the initial one which saw Machina’s emergence as Candidate.
In the Second Primary conducted a few days after the loss of the President of the Senate in the Special Convention and Presidential Primary of the Party in June in Abuja.
