Yobe North: Senate president, Lawan loses at Appeal Court

The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal has affirmed the judgment of a Federal High Court in Damaturu, Yobe State, which declared Bashir Machina as the genuine candidate for the All Progressives Congress( APC), Yobe North senatorial district.

In a unanimous judgment delivered by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, the appellate court  dismissed the appeal filed by the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, for lacking in merit.

Justice Dongban-Mensem, who led Justices Haruna Tsammani and Peter Ige resolved all the issues formulated by the appellant against him.

In dismissing the appeal, the court awarded N1 million against the Senate president in favour of the 1st defendant.

It held that the primary election of the APC conducted on June 9 relied upon by the appellant,  contravened the provisions of the Electoral Act, as same was not monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC).

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“Section 84 (5) of the Electoral Act 2010, provides that the 3rd defendant(INEC) must be present at every primary election of a political party seeking to nominate candidate for political offices.

“This section is designed to checkmate political parties who involved in acts of impunity and also to check political parties holding parallel primaries.

“INEC must be in attendance to ensure internal democracy and to identify authentic candidates that emerged from these primaries,” Justice Dongban-Mensem held.

Justice Fadima Aminu of the Federal High Court had in her judgment held that Machina remained the APC authentic candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District.

Machina had emerged as the winner of the primary election supervised by INEC officials where the senate president, Ahmed Lawal did not participate because he was one of the presidential aspirants.

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

SUN