The court arrived at the decision after listening to the arguments of both the defendants’ counsels and the plaintiff’s counsel.
A Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu, Yobe State, has reserved judgment in a case filed by Bashir Shariff Machina on the Yobe North All Progressives Congress senatorial primary election, against President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan and two others.
SaharaReporters had reported that Machina instituted a case against APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission asking the court to uphold him as the authentic winner of the party’s primary elections conducted on the 28th of May 2022.
When the case came up on Monday, the Presiding Judge, Justice Fadimatu Aminu, reserved judgement on the pre-election case, saying a judgement date would be communicated to the parties involved in the suit.
The court arrived at the decision after listening to the arguments of both the defendants’ counsels and the plaintiff’s counsel.
Counsel to Senator Lawan, Ahmed Raji, (SAN) during an interview shortly after the adjournment, said his client prayed the court to strike out the case because it was filed out of time.
“Our objection is to the fact that the matter is statute-barred because it was not filled within 14 days stipulated by the constitution,” he said.
Similarly, explaining his position, Ibrahim Bawa (SAN), Counsel to Bashir Machina said his client was just requesting the court to compel INEC and APC to comply with the provision of the Electoral Act by declaring his client as the authentic winner of the May 28, 2022 election.
“If I don’t have a good case, I don’t come to court and I believe this is another good case that I have and I am confident that the judgement will be in my favour”, he said.