Photo: Lawan, left, Machina, right.
Yobe North: Lawan loses as INEC officially confirms Machina authentic APC candidate
The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) has officially confirmed Bashir Machina as the authentic APC candidate for Yobe North in the 2023 general elections.
The electoral umpire decision is contained in a legally admissible Certified True Copy (CTC) of INEC report for the primary election dated, 23rd June 2022.
INEC disassociated itself from the purported primary election which allegedly produced the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan as the APC senatorial candidate for the senatorial district.
By this development, the commission has therefore recognised only the primary election which was conducted on May 28 that produced Machina as the duly elected APC candidate for the district.
This has laid to rest the issue of any purported primaries said to have produced Lawan as senatorial candidate.
The electoral law provides that only election (primary, secondary) that is duly monitored by INEC is termed to be legitimate.
Periscope International recalls that the Senate President had abandoned his ambition to seek another term in the senate and instead contested for president in the last APC presidential election which he lost to Sen Bola Tinubu.
Prior to the presidential presidential primary, Machina had contested for the Yobe North senatorial seat and won.
Lawan who has been in the National Assembly since 1999 sought to collect Machina’s senatorial ticket after his presidential ambition hit the rocks but Machina refused to bulge.
In an added twist to the controversy, Sen Abdullahi Adamu, the National Chairman of APC claimed that Lawan had participated in the senatorial primary and was the recognized candidate of APC for Yobe North.
