Ahmed Lawan is the real candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial District, according to the Supreme Court.
In the main ruling, Justice Centus Nweze said it was wrong for Bashir Machina to start the case at the Federal High Court Damaturu division by sending a summons and not giving any oral evidence to back up the fraud claims.
In the majority decision, the Supreme Court also overturned the decision of the Gombe Division of the Appeal Court, which had upheld the trial court’s decision that Machina was the candidate for the Senate seat for Yobe North.
But Justices Emmanuel Agim and Adamu Jauro disagreed and said that Ahmad Lawan never took part in the APC primary on May 28 because he voluntarily withdrew to run in the presidential primary on June 8, 2022.
The minority decision said that holding another primary on June 9, 2022, where Lawan won, was against Section 84 (5) of the Electoral Act because the APC never canceled the one that took place on May 28 before holding another.
Justice Centus Nweze, who read the lead opinion, said that the decisions of the Federal High Court in Yobe and the Court of Appeal in Abuja were wrong and should be overturned.
He also said that Mr. Machina should have started his case with a writ of summons because the APC was accused of fraud when it sent Mr. Lawan’s name to INEC.
But Adamu Jauro and Emmanuel Agim, who were also on the Supreme Court panel, did not agree with the majority decision.
In the main dissenting opinion, Justice Adamu Jauro said that the APC’s appeal “has no merit,” and he gave Mr. Machina a N3 million fine.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, in his dissenting opinion, says that the APC primary election on June 9 that led to the election of Mr. Lawal was an illegal scheme.
He said that when Mr. Lawan dropped out of the race for the Yobe North Senatorial District on May 12 to run for the APC presidential nomination, he was automatically disqualified from the National Assembly election.
Mr. Agim also says that the “primary election” that was supposed to take place on June 9, 2022, was a trick because it wasn’t watched by INEC.