The Supreme Court on Wednesday fixed February 6 for  judgement in the long drawn legal battle over the authenticity of the Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Entangled in the legal battle for the Senatorial ticket are the incumbent Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Bashir Machina.

The Apex Court fixed the judgement date after taking arguments from counsel for APC and Mr Machina.

Justice Centus Nweze who presided over a five-member panel of Justices of the Court fixed the date.

APC which is rooting for Mr Lawan as its senatorial candidate filed the appeal against the judgements of the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal which held Mr Machina as the party’s candidate.

In its arguments presented by Sepiribo Peters, APC claimed that the primary election conducted on May 27, 2022 which produced Mr Machina is unknown to law because it was conducted by unlawful people.

He claimed that another primary election conducted on June 6 which produced Mr Lawan was the authentic election of the party.

However, Sarafa Yusuff, counsel to Mr Machina asked the Apex Court to dismiss the APC’s appeal for being frivolous and baseless.

He informed the court that the Danjuma Manga Committee was set up by the APC to conduct the primary election on behalf of the National Working Committee of APC.

Mr Yusuff drew the attention of the court to an affidavit deposed to by Danjuma Manga to the effect that he was mandated along with five others by the APC National Secretariat to conduct the Senatorial primary elections in Yobe.

The counsel argued that up till now, the affidavit of the said Danjuma Manga had not been disputed or denied by the APC and subsequently urged the court to affirm Bashir Sheriff Machina as the authentic Senatorial candidate of APC for Yobe North Senatorial District. 

(NAN)