The crisis in the All Progressives Congress (APC) over Yobe North Senatorial District ticket for the 2023 election has taken a new dimension.
DIPLOMATIC DIARY reports that Bashir Sherrif Machina had emerged winner of the APC senatorial primary conducted on May 28, 2022, to clinch the Yobe North senatorial ticket of the party in the 2023 election.
But on Friday, one of the aspirants at the APC SenatorialAspirants, Abubakar Abubakar Jinjiri, challenged Machina in court.
Jinjiri was listed as one of the parties in the suit filed before Justice Fadima Murtala Aminu of the Federal High Court, Damaturu, Yobe capital.
His counsel, Barr Usman Lukman Nuhu, said 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”, the lawyers said during a chat with newsmen on Friday.
He stated the exclusion of an aspirants contravened section (84) sub-section (3 and 4) of the electoral act.
The case is however adjourned till July 21, 2022
Meanwhile, Machina, who polled 289 votes in the APC primary election, is currently locked in a battle with President of the Senate, Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan.
Lawan had lost the APC Presidential primary of the APC held on June 8, but Machina refused to step down for him.
But the APC leadership under Abdullahi Adamu had submitted the name of Senate President Lawan as candidate of the Yobe North Senatorial Candidate for 2023, a development that forced Machina to seek legal redress.
This had irked Machina and his supporters who accused APC of being anti-democratic.
However, on Friday, Machina stormed the office of Tthe Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Yobe State to obtain certified true copy of the primary election, which the commission monitored.
The document certified by the electoral office on June 23, 2022, shows that Machina polled 289 votes out of the 300 votes cast by the delegates at the APC senatorial primary.
