AN aspirant for the Yobe North Senatorial ticket under the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abubakar Abubakar Jinjiri, has challenged the emergence of Bashir Sheriff Machina, as the party’s flagbearer in court.
Machina, who polled 289 votes in the election, is currently locked in a battle with the President of the Senate, Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan.
Lawan had lost in the party Presidential primary, but Machina refused to step down for him.
It was gathered that the APC submitted Lawan’s name as the Yobe Senatorial Candidate for 2023, a development that forced Machina to seek legal redress.
However, in a statement circulating on social, the Independent National Electoral Commission recognized Machina as the candidate of the APC.
The statement said: “The position of the Electoral Umpire was contained in a legally admissible Certified True Copy (CTC) for the primary election dated 23rd June 2022.”
But in another twist, Jinjiri has kicked against the entire exercise that produced Machina.
Jinjiri was listed as one of the parties in the suit before Justice Fadima Murtala Aminu of the Federal High Court, Damaturu, Yobe capital, on Friday.
His counsel, Barr Usman Lukman Nuhu, told newsmen that his client is challenging Machina, both APC state and National headquarters as well as Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), over exclusion.
He said Jinjiri was deprived of participating in the Senatorial primary despite his presence at the venue.
“I believe you have the copy of the result sheets of the primary you could clearly see that my client name and the vote he got were not there,” he said.
He stated the exclusion of an aspirant contravened section (84) sub-section (3 and 4) of the electoral act.
Other seven cases emerging from the APC primary were also presented.
Meanwhile, all cases were adjourned till July 21, 2022.
