A Federal High Court in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, has declared Bashir Machina as the rightfully elected candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The presiding judge, Justice Fadimatu Murtala, gave the ruling on Wednesday.
Machina and Senate President Ahmad Lawan who is representing Yobe North in the upper chamber have been at loggerheads over the ticket won by the former at the primaries held on May 28 and June 9, 2022.
While the case was in the court both the names of Machina and Lawan were omitted from the final list of the Independent National Electoral Commission of Presidential and National Assembly candidates of the 18 registered political parties published last week.
Lawan had contested the presidential primary of the ruling party at about the same time as the senatorial primary won by Machina. The Senate president, however, lost to Bola Tinubu, a development that forced him to jostle for the senatorial ticket but Machina insisted that he won’t step down.
Lawan has been in the National Assembly as a federal lawmaker for 23 unbroken years.
