Supreme Court declares Ahmad Lawan as APC's senatorial nominee for Yobe North

The Supreme Court on Monday declared Senate Speaker Ahmad Lawan as the bona fide All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the Yobe North Senate District for the Feb. 25 general election.

The court made the statement in a three-to-two split judgment from its five-member panel. The panel was led by Centus Nweze.

The majority judgment found that the decisions of the Federal High Court in Yobe and the Court of Appeal in Abuja "were perverse and should be set aside".

The APC had challenged lower court judgments that confirmed Bashir Machina as the Yobe North Senatorial District candidate for election.

He urged the Supreme Court to overturn the two previous verdicts and legitimize the APC National Working Committee's transmission of Mr. Lawan's name to INEC as the flag bearer of the ballot.

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In the majority decision, Mr. Nweze said Mr. Machina should have commenced his suit with a writ of summons based on the allegations of fraud brought against the CPA by submitting Mr. Lawan's name to the INEC.

But two other members of the Supreme Court panel, Adamu Jauro and Emmanuel Agim disagreed with the majority judgment.

In the main dissenting judgement, Mr. Jauro found that the APC "the appeal is devoid of merit". He fined the APC N3 million in favor of Mr. Machina.

Mr. Agim, while reading his dissenting view, said the APC primary election held on June 9, which produced Mr Lawan, was an "illegal contraption".

He noted that Mr. Lawan's withdrawal from the Yobe North Senatorial District race on May 12, to run for the APC presidential ticket, automatically disqualified the Senate President from running for office. National Assembly.

Mr. Agim further stated that the so-called primary election held on June 9, 2022 was a "ruse" as it was not monitored by INEC.

Mr. Lawan is the outgoing occupant of the Yobe North Senate seat. He had sought to clinch APC's ticket for re-election to the Senate after his failed bid for the party's presidential ticket last year.

The Abuja Court of Appeal in November last year upheld Mr. Lawan's rival, Mr. Machina, as the party's valid candidate for the senatorial constituency.

But while Mr. Lawan decided not to take the case to the Supreme Court, the APC took on the task of appealing the judgment of the Court of Appeal challenging the appointment of Mr. Machina as the party's candidate for the senatorial constituency.

The APC has insisted that Mr. Lawan is the bona fide senatorial candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial District for the upcoming general election.

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