The Federal High Court in Yobe State has granted an application for an order of substituted service of court processes on Senate President Ahmad Lawan by the winner of the Yobe North senatorial primary election of the All Progressives Congress Bashir Machina.

On Thursday, Justice Fadimatu Mohammed granted an application for an order of substituted service of court processes after Mr Machina’s legal representative, Nureini Jimoh (SAN) said the court bailiffs had found it difficult to serve the summons to Mr Lawan 

since the case was filed in the Court on June 22.

Mr Machina is asking the Federal High Court to declare him the actual senatorial candidate of APC for Yobe North and order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise him as such. The case has been adjourned to August 15. 

Mr Machina is seeking legal redress following Mr Lawan’s attempt to claim the ticket after losing his bid for the party’s presidential slot.

INEC had in a certified true report, confirmed that Mr Machina won the APC Yobe North Senatorial district primary elections which were held on May 28. The electoral body declared that Mr Machina garnered 289 votes out of 300 delegates that took part in the election.

However, the APC submitted Mr Lawan’s name as its candidate for the senatorial election slated for February 2023, claiming that a secret primary was held in which the senate president purportedly emerged as the winner.

Last week, the electoral body asked Mr Machina to go to court over his dissatisfaction with the refusal of the All Progressives Congress to submit his name, maintaining that as at July 8, it had “processed 433 requests involving the certification of One million, Six Hundred and Sixty-Two Thousand, Seven Hundred and Seventy-Six (1,662,776) pages of documents.”