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By: Sunday Ejike – Abuja
The Supreme Court on Monday, in a split judgment of three to two, declared the Senate President, Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan as the Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for Yobe North Senatorial District.
The Apex Court in the majority judgment voided and set aside the judgments of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal which affirmed Bashir Sheriff Machina as the APC candidate having won on May 28, 2022.
The ground of voiding the two earlier judgments of the lower Courts by the Supreme Court’s new judgment was that Bashir Sheriff Machina adopted originating summons to invoke his case at the Federal High Court.
Justice Centus Nweze, who delivered the lead judgment of the Apex Court, held that Machina ought to commence his case at the Federal High Court with a Writ of Summons in view of grievous allegations in his suit against the defendants.
Justice Nweze said that hostile issues were involved in Machina’s matter that cannot be resolved through Originating Summons.
However, Justices Adamu Jauro and Emmanuel Agim disagreed with the majority judgment and held that both the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal were correct in their findings and declared Machina as APC’s Senatorial candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial District.
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The two Justices held that Machina was lawfully nominated because the primary election of May 28, 2022, which produced him was lawfully conducted in line with the provisions of the law.
Justices Jauro and Agim insisted that APC conducted an unlawful primary election because the May 28 primary election was not cancelled before that of June 9, 2022, which purportedly produced Lawan, describing it as illegal, unlawful and a breach of Section 285 of the 1999 Constitution.
Besides, they held that Lawan had, in an undisputed letter to APC voluntarily withdrawn his participation in the primary election for the Presidential election.
The two Justices contended that INEC was specific that it witnessed the May 28 primary election that produced Machina but did not witness that of June 9, 2022, because there was no notification from APC to that effect.
They, therefore, dismissed the appeal by the APC for being incompetent and unmeritorious.
It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal, Abuja division affirmed the judgment of a Federal High Court in Damaturu, Yobe State, which declared Bashir Machina, as the genuine candidate for the APC for Yobe North Senatorial District.
A three-member panel of Justices of the court, in a unanimous judgment delivered by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, the appellate court dismissed the appeal filed by the Senate President for lacking in merit and resolved all the issues he formulated against him.
Justice Fadima Aminu of the Federal High Court had, in her judgment held that Machina remained the APC authentic candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District.
She held that the “phantom June 9 primary election” that produced the Senate President as the winner and candidate, was a “nullity” because INEC did not monitor the election.
Lawan lost the APC presidential ticket to former governor of Lagos state, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
However, Machina was asked to step down for Lawan but he insisted that he would not withdraw for the Senate President.
In the face of the controversy, the APC submitted the Senate President’s name to INEC as its senatorial candidate for Yobe North.
Not satisfied with the decision of his party, Machina headed to court to seek redress.
Specifically, Machina in his suit asked the court to declare him as the validly elected senatorial candidate of the APC for Yobe North Senatorial District.
Reacting to the judgement, the Senate President said the victory at the Supreme Court is a victory for the APC and the democracy of the country.
He said the judgement will strengthen the democracy of the country just as he commended the apex court and the judiciary for the judgement.
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