•Senate President dedicates court victory to APC, democracy
•Party sets up reconciliation panel to meet Machina

In a split decision of three-to-two, the Supreme Court yeeterday affirmed the nomination of the Senate President Ahmad Lawan as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Yobe North Senatorial District for the forthcoming election.

In the lead majority judgment, Justice Centus Nweze held that Lawan’s major challenger, Bashir Machina, was wrong to have initiated his suit at the trial court via an originating summons in view of his allegations that the APC acted fraudulently in submitting Lawan’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its candidate.

The majority decision upheld the contention by the appellant (the APC) that Machina ought to have initiated the suit at the trial court via a writ of summons, as against an originating summons, since he raised contentious allegations of fraud.

“The bedrock of the suit shows that there were allegations of fraudulent practices against the appellant.

“That the first respondent (Machina) accused the APC of fraudulently substituting his name with that of Lawan.

“Where there is an allegation of fraud, it should not be commenced by an originating summons. There was a need to call witnesses to prove allegations of fraud,” Justice Nweze said.

He held that the earlier decisions of the Federal High Court (Yobe) and the subsequent Court of Appeal (Abuja) affirming Machina as the APC candidate for Yobe North “were perverse and must be set aside”.

The judge allowed the appeal and set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

But in his lead dissenting opinion, Justice Adamu Jauro faulted the APC’s primary held on June 9, 2022, from which Lawan was elected the party’s candidate.

Also, Lawan has dedicated his victory at the Supreme Court to his party and to democracy.

Lawan, who addressed reporters in Abuja, thanked the Judiciary for the judgment which he said would “strengthen democracy”.

He said: “What happened was democracy at work and the courts gave their various judgments. Of course, the Supreme Court gave the final judgment.

“I want to, at this point, commend the Supreme Court and the Judiciary for making this kind of judgment to strengthen our democracy. It is not only for politicians to work and strengthen democracy; it is all of us and all the institutions that have roles to play. So, I commend them.”

Also, the Yobe State chapter of the ruling APC has set up a reconciliation committee to liaise with Machina and his supporters, following yesterday’s Supreme Court judgment.

Reacting to the apex court’s verdict, Yobe State APC Chairman Mohammed Gadaka, popularly called Bill Gates, announced this while speaking on phone with The Nation yesterday.

He said: “Today’s judgment is in-house. So, we cannot be celebrating for having victory over one of our own. What has happened is within the Yobe State APC house. We are doing this in the interest of the party and not for an individual.”

The chairman said the move was more important than celebrating the court judgment.

He said the State Deputy Chairman Mohammed Ala-Mai would chair the reconciliation committee while the Political Adviser to Governor Mai Mala Buni, Alhaji Aji Bularafa, would serve as the Secretary of the committee. The state’s APC Secretary Abubakar Bakabe, from Zone C, would also serve as a member in the committee.