Yobe North: Court declares Machina APC candidate, Senate President Lawan in limbo

It has continued to get increasingly clear that the Senate President Ahmad Lawan may not return to the red chamber in 2023.

A Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu, Yobe State, Wednesday, declared Bashir Sheriff Machina as the authentic candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Yobe North, in the forthcoming 2023 National Assembly election.

The court also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish his name accordingly.

The presiding judge, Justice Fadima Aminu, affirmed that Machina was duly and validly elected Yobe North senatorial candidate for APC, during the May 28, 2022 primary election of the party.

READ: Northern APC Governors reject Ahmad Lawan as consensus presidential candidate

Lawan had contested and lost the APC presidential primaries to a former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

He has, however, been trying unsuccessfully, to reclaim the ticket won by Machina, who has insisted not to relinquish it to the senate president.

The National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, had warned that Machina risked severe sanctions if he refused to relinquish his ticket to Lawan.

Adamu claimed that the party is supreme and that it reserves the right to decide who gets its ticket in any election.

In the final list of presidential and National Assembly candidates published by INEC last week Tuesday, no candidate was published for Yobe North as the space was left blank.