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The fate of Nigeria’s President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, appears to have been shattered after a protracted battle to secure the nomination to run again as the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) senatorial candidate for Yobe North in the upcoming 2023 National Assembly elections.
This is as the Federal High Court in Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State, on Wednesday, declared Bashir Sheriff Machina as the APC’s authentic senatorial candidate for Yobe North.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was further ordered by the judgment handed down by the presiding court, Justice Fadima Aminu, to adopt and publicize his name accordingly.
It would be recalled that no candidate was included in INEC’s list of candidates for the National Assembly and Presidential elections list released on 20th September 2022.
In her verdict on Wednesday, the Judge affirmed Machina as the duly and validly elected Yobe North senatorial candidate for APC, thereby upholding the May 28 primary election of the Party that produced him.
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She thus ordered the APC and the INEC to recognise Bashir Machina as the Yobe North senatorial candidate of the party.
The judge nullified the parallel primary election that produced the Senate President on June 9, 2022, ordering the APC to forward the name of Machina to INEC as the authentic winner of the primary held in May.
The judgement came weeks after Machina distanced himself from notice of withdrawal from the race which went gone viral.
A copy of the notice showed a letter allegedly written by Machina addressed to the party’s National Chairman stating his withdrawal from the Yobe North senatorial race.
Both Lawan and Akpabio had contested the APC Presidential primaries. However, after losing, both of them were listed as senatorial candidates by the APC, but INEC refused to recognise them.
Lawan, Akpabio, and Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, who all aspired to clinch the ticket to run for presidency contest under the APC 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.
