Lawan out of next year's senatorial race as court rules that he is not the APC candidate

SENATE president Senator Ahmed Lawan will not be returning to the National Assembly after a federal high court sitting in Damaturu ordered the All Progressives Congress (APC) to submit the name of Bashir Sheriff Machina as its Yobe North Senatorial District candidate.

After making the error of seeking the APC presidential ticket earlier this year, Senator Lawan is facing a major re-election. Mr Machina, the candidate who stood in for him while he sought the presidential ticket refused to stand down and under Nigeria's electoral laws, he is the authentically elected APC nominee.

Under Nigeria's election rules, candidates are not allowed to stand for two offices at a time but politicians have found a way around it by getting surrogates to stand in for them. Senator Lawan is the lawmaker representing Yobe North Senatorial District and because he could not seek re-election and the APC presidential ticket at the same time, he asked party member Mr Machina to stand in for him.

Subsequently, at the party primary on May 22, Mr Machina was duly elected as the APC senatorial candidate. Having lost his APC presidential bid, Senator Lawan has asked his surrogate to stand down for him but Mr Machina refused to do so, saying he is the duly elected APC candidate and will fly the party's flag at next year's election.

Since then, the matter has developed into a legal tug of war between the two candidates and the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec). Today, a court sitting in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, ruled that Mr Machina is the authentic APC candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial District after affirming the May 28 primary election conducted by the party.

In a judgement delivered today, Justice Fadimatu Murtala also nullified the parallel primary election of June 9 that produced Senator Lawan. Kolawale Balogun, Senator Lawan's counsel, said that his client would be appropriately advised on the next move following the judgement.