The winner of the All Progressives Congress’ ticket for Yobe North Senatorial District, Bashir Machina has been dragged to court in a new development.
Machina is being sued by another aspirant, Abubakar Abubakar Jinjiri, who took part in the primary election that produced the former as winner.
Jinjir is challenging the election process on the ground of exclusion at the primary.
Machina, had polled 289 votes to win the election but faced severe pressure from President of the Senate, Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan.
Lawan, who currently occupies the seat had contested the APC Presidential Primary but lost to eventual winner, Bola Tinubu.
The six-time lawmaker was eventually submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission as a substitute for Machina by the APC, a move the latter rejected and even threatened legal action.
Machina was eventually recognized as authentic candidate for the Yobe North APC seat by INEC on Friday, after the commission disqualified Lawan in line with new electoral law.
However, Jinjiri, appears among names of parties in a suit filed before Justice Fadima Murtala Aminu of the Federal High Court, Damaturu, Yobe capital, on Friday.
Counsel to Jinjiri, Usman Lukman Nuhu, while addressing journalists, said his client is challenging Machina, both APC state and National headquarters as well as Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), over exclusion.
According to Usman, Jinjiri was deprived from participating in the Senatorial primary even though he was present 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 aspirants contravened section (84) sub-section (3 and 4) of the electoral act.
Hearing of the case has been fixed for 21 July in Damaturu High Court, the Yobe state capital.
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