The Nigerian Supreme Court today affirmed Senate President Ahmed Lawan as the candidate for All Progressives Congress (APC) Yobe North Senatorial zone.
The ruling was by a majority of the judges on the panel was to say the least shocking.
The crux of the matter is that Ahmed Lawan, the current Senate President did not contest the APC Senatorial Primaries which was won by by Bashir Machina on May 8th. Lawan contested the APC Presidentia Primaries in which he lost woefully before millions of viewers on National Television.
The APC in Yobe State now cancelled the original primaries won by Bashir Machina, and without giving the Independent National Electoral Commission the mandatory 21 days notice, conducted another primary election on 9th of June 2022, with the subsequent proclamation of Ahmed Lawan as the authentic candidate. APC then asked Bashir Machina to step down for Ahmed Lawan. Machina refused and headed to court.
Bashir Machina then went to court which declared Bashir Machina as the authentic candidate of the APC. This decision was then affirmed again at the Court of Appeal. APC then appealed the decision at the Supreme Court.
The ruling of the majority Judges centered on the position of the APC that the original suit was based on allegations of fraud by the appellants (which is that the APC fraudulently substituted Machina’s name with that of Ahmed Lawan).
The judges asserted that where there is an allegation of fraud it should not be commenced by an originating summons, and that they should have called witnesses to prove the allegations of fraud.
As it stands now, Ahmed Lawan will now contest the 2023 elections as the Senatorial Candidate of APC Yobe North,
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