Lawan vs Machina: Supreme Court judgement sparks controversies

The Supreme Court on Monday restored the Senate President, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan as the Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for Yobe North Senatorial District.

In a split judgement of three to two, the apex court affirmed Lawan as the authentic Senatorial candidate of the APC in Yobe North Senatorial district.

The apex court, in the majority judgement, voided and set aside the decisions of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, which had affirmed Bashir Sheriff Machina as the APC candidate, having won the party’s primary election held on May 28, 2022.

Justice Centus Chima Nweze, who delivered the majority judgement of the Apex Court, held that Machina ought to have commenced his case at the Federal High Court with a writ of summons given the grievous allegations in his suit against the defendants.

However, Justices Adamu Jauro and Emmanuel Akomaye Agim disagreed with the majority judgement.

They held that the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal were correct in their findings, which affirmed Machina as the authentic candidate.

The two Justices held that Machina was lawfully nominated because the primary election of May 28, 2022, which produced him, was lawfully conducted in line with the provisions of the law.

Justices Jauro and Agim further insisted that APC conducted an unlawful primary election as the May 28 primary election was not cancelled before June 9, 2022, which purportedly produced Lawan, describing it as illegal and a breach of section 285 of the 1999 Constitution.

Lawan hails judgement as victory for democracy.

Reacting to the judgement, Lawan said the decision was a victory for the APC in Yobe, the entire country and democracy. His statement was contained in a post via his verified Twitter handle.

He said, “The Supreme Court Judgement of today on the disputed All Progressives Congress (APC) Yobe North Senatorial ticket in the February 25 National Assembly is a victory for all APC in Yobe, generally for APC across the country and democracy.

“What happened was democracy at work. The lower courts gave their various judgements, and the Supreme Court gave the final judgement.

“I want to commend the Supreme Court and, in fact, the judiciary for delivering this kind of judgement to strengthen our democracy.”

Lawan’s Supreme Court victory, daylight robbery – Machina

However, Nura Audu, a Deputy Campaign Coordinator, Yobe North Zone, for the Bashir Machina campaign team, described the judgement as devastating to anyone committed to justice and fairness.

Audu, a staunch supporter of Machina, also said the judgement was unprecedented and unfortunate in the political history of Nigeria.

“The Supreme Court judgement was a daylight robbery and very unfortunate in the political history of Nigeria.

“Ahmed Lawan neither obtained and filled the Senatorial aspiration form nor contested in the primaries,” he told newsmen.

Other reactions

Meanwhile, in a terse statement via his Twitter handle, former Nigerian lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani noted that the forces against fair elections in the country were not giving up anytime soon.

“It’s glaring that the forces against fair elections are unrelenting. We must all be vigilant for democracy if we really want this election to be credible,” he tweeted.