Setback for Lawan as court orders INEC to recognise Machina as APC Yobe north candidate

A federal high court in Damaturu has ordered the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise Bashir Machina as the senatorial candidate for Yobe north.

There has been controversy over the APC Yobe north senatorial ticket.

Machina, at a primary election organised by the party in May, had won unopposed.

But Ahmed Lawan, senate president, was said to have participated in another primary election organised by the APC, after he contested the party’s presidential ticket and lost in June.

Machina was reportedly asked to step down for Lawan but, he insisted that he would not withdraw for the senate president.

Amid the controversy, the APC had submitted the senate president’s name to INEC as its senatorial candidate for Yobe north.

INEC, however, has said the APC currently has no senatorial candidate for Yobe north.

Aggrieved, Machina instituted a suit asking the court to declare him as the authentic senatorial candidate of the APC for the 2023 election.

In the judgment delivered on Wednesday, Fadimatu Aminu, the judge, described the primary election where Lawan emerged as the candidate as a “phantom”.

Consequently, she ordered the APC to forward the name of Machina to INEC as the authentic winner of the primary, which was held on the May 28.