Supreme Court declares Lawan Yobe North senatorial candidate

gistfox

2 years ago

In a split decision of three-to-two, the Supreme Court on Monday affirmed the nomination of the Senate President Ahmad Lawan as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Yobe North Senatorial District for the 25 February general election.

In the lead majority judgment, Justice Centus Nweze held that Lawan’s major challenger, Bashir Machina was wrong to have commenced his suit at the trial court via a writ of summons in view of his allegations that the APC acted fraudulently in transmitting Lawan’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as it’s candidate.

Justice Nweze held the earlier decisions of the Federal High Court in Yobe and the subsequent one Court of Appeal in Abuja, affirming Machina as the APC candidate for Yobe North “were perverse and must be set aside.”

In his lead dissenting opinion Justice Adamu Jauro faulted the APC’s primary held on June 9, 2022,from which Lawan emerged as the party’s candidate.