The Supreme Court declared Mr Lawan as APC's senatorial candidate for Yobe North in a three-against-two split judgement of its five-member panel led by Centus Nweze.
The Supreme Court on Monday declared Senate President Ahmad Lawan as the authentic candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Yobe North Senatorial District for the 25 February general election.
The court made the declaration in a three-against-two split judgement of its five-member panel. The panel was led by Centus Nweze.
The majority judgement held that the decisions of the Federal High Court in Yobe and the Court of Appeal in Abuja "were perverse and must be set aside."
The APC had challenged the judgements of the lower courts which affirmed Bashir Machina as the candidate of Yobe North Senatorial District for the election.
It urged the Supreme Court to nullify the two previous verdicts and legitimise APC's National Working Committee's forwarding of Mr Lawan's name to INEC as flagbearer for the poll.
In the majority decision, Mr Nweze said Mr Machina ought to have commenced his suit by a writ of summons going by the allegations of fraud levelled against the APC in transmitting Mr Lawan's name to INEC.
But, two other members of the Supreme Court panel, Adamu Jauro and Emmanuel Agim disagreed with the majority judgement.
In the lead dissenting judgement, Mr Jauro held that the APC "appeal is devoid of merit." He slammed N3 million fine against the APC in favour of Mr Machina.
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Mr Agim while reading his dissenting view, said APC's primary election held on 9 June which produced Mr Lawan was an "illegal contraption".
He noted that Mr Lawan's withdrawal from the Yobe North Senatorial District race on 12 May, to vie for the APC presidential ticket, automatically disqualified the Senate President from the National Assembly election.
Mr Agim further said the purported primary election held on 9 June 2022, was a "ruse" as it was not monitored by INEC.
Mr Lawan is the incumbent occupier of the Yobe North Senatorial seat. He had sought to clinch APC's ticket for reelection to the Senate after his failed attempt at the party's presidential ticket last year.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja in November last year affirmed Mr Lawan's rival, Mr Machina, as the party's valid candidate for the senatorial district.
But while Mr Lawan decided not to pursue the case further at the Supreme Court, the APC took on the mantle of appealing against the Court of Appeal's judgement challenging the nomination of Mr Machina as the party's candidate for the senatorial district.
The APC insisted that Mr Lawan is the authentic senatorial candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial District for the forthcoming general election.
