Lawan vs Machina: Court fixes Feb 6 for judgment in Yobe north senatorial dispute

The supreme court has fixed February 6 to deliver judgment in an appeal seeking to affirm Ahmed Lawan, senate president, as the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate for Yobe north.

A five-member panel of the apex court led by Centus Nweze fixed the date on Wednesday after parties in the appeal adopted their briefs of argument as their final submissions.

Crownwell Peters, counsel to the APC (appellant), prayed the court to allow the appeal.

Ibrahim Bawa, counsel for the 1st respondent (Bashir Machina), asked the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking merit.

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

Machina won unopposed during the primaries organised by the party in May 2022.

But the senate president was said to have participated in other primaries organised by the APC after he contested the party’s presidential ticket unsuccessfully in June.

Machina was reportedly asked to step down for Lawan but he insisted that he is the rightful candidate.

Amid the controversy, the APC submitted the senate president’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the candidate for Yobe north.

The electoral commission subsequently refused to list any candidate for the district.

Aggrieved, Machina instituted a suit asking the court to declare him as the authentic senatorial candidate.

In September, a federal high court in Damaturu, the Yobe capital, ordered the APC and INEC to recognise Machina as the candidate.

Also, on November 28, an Abuja court of appeal affirmed Machina’s election as the candidate of the APC for the Yobe north senatorial district.