Lawan Loses as Court Declares Machina APC Candidate for Yobe North

•It’s victory for justice, says winner

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

A Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu, Yobe State capital, has declared Bashir Sheriff Machina as the authentic All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate for Yobe North in the 2023 National Assembly elections.

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

Presiding judge, Justice Fadima Aminu, gave the order while affirming that Machina was duly and validly elected Yobe North senatorial candidate for APC during the May 28 primary election of the party.

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

He, however, tried unsuccessfully, to reclaim the Yobe North Senatorial District ticket won by Machina, who has since insisted he would not relinquish the ticket to the senate president.

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 was supreme and that it reserved the right to decide who gotits ticket in any election.

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

Meanwhile, Machina has hailed the judgment and described it as a victory for justice.

Machina, in a statement by his media aide, Husaini Mohammed Isa, also called on all his supporters, and indeed the people of Yobe North, to remain peaceful, and not to react in the face of any provocation.

He further declared the judgement as “no victor, no vanquished” even as he called for immediate reconciliation among the two groups that existed within the party in Yobe North.

“I welcome the decision of the Judge of the Federal High Court, Damaturu; it is a victory that stands for justice. It is now time to set aside our differences and close ranks for the impending battle, the next war we must wage is the war for APC’s victory in the coming 2023 general election.

“I am particularly happy that the administration of Governor Mai Mala Buni places much emphasis on reconciliation as a virile tool for peaceful co-existence. We must, therefore, embrace it and move forward,” he said.