The Supreme Court on Monday (6th February, 2023) dismissed Sheriff Bashir Machina, and declared Ahmed Lawan as the Winner of the Yobe North Senatorial Candidate.


The Majority Judgement of the Supreme Court ruled that: “Bashir Machina violated THE COURT RULES, by commencing his court action with a ‘WRIT OF SUMMONS’ instead of an ‘ORIGINATING SUMMONS’, and therefore, his case shouldn't have been entertained by any of the lower courts in the first place.
(These are all technical terms that has to do with the court processes.. Lawyers are supposed to be very conversant with these terms..)

But then..
According to the Electoral Act 2022 (Section:33); it states thus:

“A political party shall not be allowed to change or substitute its candidate whose name has been submitted under section 29 of this Act, except in the case of DEATH or WITHDRAWAL by the candidate:
Provided that in the case of such withdrawal or death of a candidate, the political party affected shall, within 14 days of the occurrence of the event, hold a fresh primary election to produce and submit a fresh candidate to the Commission for the election concerned.

Bashir Machina won the APC’s Nomination on the 28th of May 2022 (by the primaries that was conducted by the APC, and monitored by the INEC), and it was never disputed by the APC in any Court of Law.
Thus,, the Victory of Machina was (and is still) very valid, and was never disputed nor discarded, even though the APC never submitted Bashir Machina’s name to the INEC as the person who won the Nomination Ticket.

The APC just decided to come up with a replacement for Machina, that is, after the newly conducted Primaries which they did on the 9th of June.
But then, they didn't fulfill all the necessary requirements of the Electoral Act for the process of replacement of an already-nominated candidate.
The APC might be assuming in this case that they had not submitted Machina’s name as the Nominated Candidate yet, so, there is no need for any “Replacement” or “Substitution”, rather, for them to submit the name of their candidate which was elected in a supposedly “Validly Conducted Primaries”.

Now, let us assume that the Senatorial Primaries of 28th May 2022 was null-and-void, and shouldn't be taken as the authentic primaries.
(Like I pointed out earlier, APC cannot assume this particular situation, because the primaries actually took place, and they -- the APC -- recognized that they conducted it, and they didn't dispute it.)

So, Let Us look at the Senatorial Primaries which took place on the 9th of June 2023.
The APC didn't adhere strictly to the Electoral Act 2022 (Section:82; Sub-sections-1 & 5) which states thus:

(1). Every registered political party shall give the Commission at least 21 days’ notice of any convention, congress, conference or meeting convened for the purpose of “merger” and electing members of its executive committees, other governing bodies or nominating candidates for any of the elective offices specified under this Act.

(5). Failure of a political party to notify the Commission as stated in subsection-(1) shall render the convention, congress, conference or meeting invalid.

a. The APC never gave proper notification to the INEC for the Primaries which they conducted on the 9th of June 2022. (But they notified INEC about the Primaries which they conducted on the 28th of May, 2022).

b. The INEC didn't monitor the primaries which took place on the 9th of June 2022, (but they duly monitored the primaries which took place on the 28th May, 2022)


From all indications, Dr. Ahmed Lawan is NOT QUALIFIED.


So, what then is supposed to be the outcome of the recent Supreme Court Judgement?

Since the APC did not accept Bashir Machina Candidacy, and thus got his case trashed by the Supreme Court Judgement based on technicalities, and then also, being that Dr. Ahmed Lawan is not qualified to be the APC Senatorial Candidate based on the requirements of the Electoral Act;
then, THE STATUS-QUO REMAINS.
That means, APC has no Senatorial Candidate for Yobe-North Senatorial District Election come February 2023.

ABOUT WRIT OF SUMMONS..

Let me try to explain a little bit about ”WRIT OF SUMMONS”, and “ORIGINATING SUMMONS”.
According to the Electoral Act 2022 (Section 84: subsection-14) which states that:

(14). Notwithstanding the provisions of this Act or rules of a political party, an aspirant who complains that any of the provisions of this Act and the guidelines of a political party have not been complied with in the selection or nomination of a candidate of a political party for election, may apply to the Federal High Court for redress.

Bashir Machina applied to the High Court For Redress, as required by the Electoral Act.
But the Supreme Court faulted the mode by which he applied for the redress.

A civil action before a higher court (High court, or Federal High Court, or National Industrial Court) is commenced by either a “writ of summons” where the issue is contentious, or by an “originating summons” where the issue is non-contentious.

What does it mean for an issue to be “Contentious” or “Non-Contentious”?

A Contentious Issue (in a layman's language) is an issue where the parties are likely to argue or dispute back-and-forth.
Whereas a Non-Contentious Issue is an issue lodged in the court in the format of a request, seeking for the resolution of a case without any detriment to any existing rights or claims.

The Supreme Court therefore ruled that the issue was a Non-Contentious Issue, and therefore, that the Counsel to Bashir Machina was supposed to have known better.

Nevertheless, some supposedly Non-Contentious issues might still involve some form of disputes and arguments during their proceedings., but that wouldn't stop such issues from being Non-Contentious Issues.

LIKE I SAID EARLIER....
LAWYERS KNOW ALL THESE TERMS FAR BETTER THAN LAYMEN..!!

I just don't know why this happened with the Counsels to Bashir Machina.






ABOUT “DOUBLE NOMINATIONS”...

The Nigerian Constitution And The Electoral Act 2022 did not prohibit anybody from “seeking” to be nominated by many parties, or for many positions.

Anybody can be an Aspirant on many fronts, but once the person gets nominated by two different parties for the same position in the same election, or for two different elective positions in two different elections that would be running concurrently, then, those two nominations stand to be disqualified.

Thus, for a person who is seeking to be nominated to be a Candidate, he had to be very careful while being an Aspirant in any party, so that he would not be nominated twice (or more).
Thus, he had to play the game of One-Aspirant-At-A-Time., so that he can always be on a safer side.
And once Someone-Else gets nominated (that is, after a valid primaries had been conducted), the person can start seeking to be nominated for another position in the same party, or he can go to another party and start seeking to be nominated for that same position again, or he may seek for another position all together (in the new party).

Therefore, for someone to Buy the Nomination Form of a Political Party, it is totally different from BEING THE PARTY’S NOMINATED CANDIDATE..

Thus, if someone bought many nomination forms from many parties, it doesn't mean that he was nominated many times.

The Electoral Act 2022 (Section:35 -- and Section:115(1)(d)) were all referring to Party’s Nominated Candidates,, and not “Aspirants”.


Read this news-article link to understand more “Double Nominations”.
https://nigeriannewsdirect.com/the-electoral-act-2022-allows-an-aspirant-to-be-nominated-as-candidate-of-another-party-for-same-or-different-elective-office/

It is high time that INEC should start obeying electoral act than all these black market supreme court judgements. How can few people that calls themselves 'Justice' be imposing leaders on the masses? Just like they did in Imo state and today Imo is in turmoil. Enough of this madness.

The outcome of Nigeria elections are determined in court and not on polling booths. Even after winning election, you have to know the technicalities that will sustain your winnings, otherwise someone who just bought a nomination form without campaign can convince the judge to declare him the winner.

Fergie001, Gerfield1, Naptu2, Penguin2, Racoon

Abeg INEC! The electoral act is clear The Supreme Court did a judicial abracadabra again like in Imo State.

Then APC no get candidate be that. Electoral act must be obeyed

Litigation democracy is for the highest bidder. The courts are stealing our victory and handing it to losers

Lalasticlala, Seun, Nlfpmod

Mynd44

BluntCrazeMan:
Fergie001, Gerfield1, Naptu2, Penguin2, Racoon

I agree with your positions.the counsels to machina made school boy errors which killed his case.in any case,both majority and minority rulings are good

Racoon:
Abeg INEC!

Inec to do what

garfield1:


I agree with your positions. the counsels to machina made school boy errors which killed his case. In any case, both majority and minority rulings are good.

That's just it

garfield1:


Inec to do what

Leave him naa.

Can't he shout peacefully again??

BluntCrazeMan:
Leave him naa.

Can't he shout peacefully again??

How

BluntCrazeMan:
Gerfield1, Naptu2, Penguin2, Racoon

The Supreme Court is the highest Court of the land.

fergie001:
The Supreme Court is the highest Court of the land.

I'm not disputing their judgement.

But what should the INEC do now??

Put Lawan as the candidate?
Leave the position Vacant.??

BluntCrazeMan:
I'm not disputing their judgement.

But what should the INEC do now??

Put Lawan as the candidate?
Leave the position Vacant.??

Lawan as Candidate ASAP.

Front page

fergie001:
Lawan as Candidate ASAP.

Ok ooo.

Noted.

According to Deji Adeyanju...
Supreme Court - 100 : 0 - Electoral Act.

BluntCrazeMan:
Ok ooo.

Noted.

According to Deji Adeyanju...
Supreme Court - 100 : 0 - Electoral Act.

The SC has made a mess of this new Electoral Act. It is no different from that of 2010.

Nigeria which way?

fergie001:
The SC has made a mess of this new Electoral Act. It is no different from that of 2010.

Honestly.

They have just deflated it so badly.

And they are still going to deflate it even far more further in the days and weeks and months to come.

There need to be a law banning the courts from meddling in the Choice of the People. Supreme court is biting more than it can chew. That CJN is a politician based on his recent comments and he needs to be replaced

The supreme court.

The supreme court will constitutional turn ANYTHING it deems fit!

The SC has the final say!

Judiciary is now for sale to the highest bidder. Kangaro judgement . From Hope Uzodinma of Imo State to Ahmed Lawal of Yobe State. May me never experience APC again. 8 years of hell

B

Confuse ga di ma!!!

The numbers of supreme court governors in Nigeria is going up

Electoral act will reign supreme, Lawan will lose the seat after the election but God should defeat APC for Nigerians. We have suffered so much

They are both apc tools. They shud jst perish with apc