The ruling All Progressives Congress has informed the Independent National Electoral Commission that Bashir Sheriff Machina is its candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District, a move that finally sealed the fate of Senate President Ahmad Lawan.

In an October 12 letter signed by chairman Abdullahi Adamu and national secretary Iyiola Omisore, the APC urged the electoral office to publish Mr Machina as the party’s candidate in line with the September 28 judgement of the Damaturu Division of the Federal High Court. 

The court has confirmed Mr Machina as the APC candidate who emerged from its primaries on May 28. Mr Lawan had tried to use his vast political and financial reach to wrestle the ticket from Mr Machina. The Senate President failed to participate in the senatorial primaries because he had participated in the presidential primaries in Abuja, which he lost to Bola Tinubu, the ruling party’s standard-bearer for the 2023 presidential election. 

The APC’s compliance with the federal court directive has all but guaranteed that Mr Lawan will no longer be returning to the Senate for the first time since he was first elected in 1999.

The case has been closely watched nationwide as a test of APC’s commitment to internal democratic ethos and INEC’s own independence as an impartial arbiter and administrator of the nation’s electoral process.