(L-R) Ahmad Lawan and Bachir Machina
A Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu, the Yobe state capital on Wednesday, declared Bashir Machina, as the rightfully elected candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Yobe North Senatorial District.
This has put to rest the almost four-month controversy over the party’s authentic candidate for the senatorial district in the upcoming 2023 general elections.
The presiding judge, Justice Fadimatu Murtala, pronounced the ruling on Wednesday.
For months, Machina and Senate President Ahmad Lawan who is representing Yobe North in the upper chamber have been at loggerheads over the ticket won by the former at the primaries held on May 28 and June 9, 2022.
While the case was in the court both the names of Machina and Lawan were missed out in the Independent National Electoral Commission’s final list of Presidential and National Assembly candidates of the 18 registered political parties published last week.
Lawan had contested the APC presidential primary at about the same time as the senatorial primary won by Machina.
The Senate president, however, lost to Bola Tinubu, a development that forced him to push for the senatorial ticket but Machina insisted that he won’t step down.
Lawan has been in the National Assembly as a federal lawmaker for 23 unbroken years.
