SHARE THIS
–Pix(above): Sen President Ahmad Lawan
B-r-e-a-k-i-n-g! There is strong ray of hope of Senate return for Senate President Ahmad Lawan who has been moody over his purported loss to his arch-rival in Yobe North senatorial APC primary, Bashir Machina, as the Supreme Court, this morning, affirmed him as the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate for Yobe North.
In a majority judgment delivered this Monday morning, the apex court allowed the appeal filed by the APC against Bashir Machina’s candidature.
The court made the declaration in a three-against-two split judgement of its five-member panel led by Justice Centus Nweze.
The majority judgement held that the decisions of the Federal High Court in Yobe and the Court of Appeal in Abuja “were perverse and must be set aside.”
The APC had challenged the judgements of the lower courts which affirmed Bashir Machina as the candidate of Yobe North Senatorial District for the upcoming election.
It urged the Supreme Court to nullify the two previous verdicts and legitimise APC’s National Working Committee’s forwarding of Lawan’s name to INEC as flagbearer for the poll.
In the majority decision, Justice Nweze said Machina ought to have commenced his suit by a writ of summons going by the allegations of fraud levelled against the APC in transmitting Lawan’s name to INEC.
But, two other members of the Supreme Court panel, Justices Adamu Jauro and Emmanuel Agim, disagreed with the majority judgement.
In the lead dissenting judgement, Justice Jauro held that the APC “appeal is devoid of merit.” He slammed N3 million fine against the APC in favour of Mr Machina.
Justice Agim while reading his dissenting judgement, said APC’s primary election held on June 9, which produced Lawan was an “illegal contraption.”
He noted that Lawan’s withdrawal from the Yobe North Senatorial District race on 12 May, to vie for the APC presidential ticket, automatically disqualified the Senate President from the National Assembly election.
Justice Agim further said the purported primary election held on June 9, 2022, was a “ruse” as it was not monitored by INEC.
Lawan is the incumbent occupier of the Yobe North Senatorial seat. He had
sought to clinch APC’s ticket for re-election to the Senate after his failed presidential ticket bid during APC primary, last year./SHARE THIS
- Tags: Ahmad Lawan, Bashir Machina, APC