It has been tussle after tussle for Bashir Sheriff Machina as he has been embroiled in another new controversy in the race for the Yobe North Senatorial seat which came about as another fresh aspirant of the All Progressives Congress slammed a lawsuit against him which conflicts with his recent ticket win.
The hearing of his peculiar case and that of six others has been slated for 21 July in Damaturu High Court.
An aspirant, Abubakar Abubakar Jinjiri has also come out to challeng Machina’s election on the ground of exclusion at the primary elections in the State.
Read Also: Human Rights Lawyer Faults Replacement Of Machina With Lawan
The Independent Electoral Comission (INEC) had recognised Machina, who polled 289 votes as winner of the election and has rebuffed the APC, which substituted his name with President of the Senate, Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan. Lawan had lost in the APC’s Presidential primary and then manouvered the ticket for himself to contest next year.
But Machina refused to step down for him, threatening legal action.
Jinjiri, Machina’s challenger was listed as one of the parties in the suit before Justice Fadima Murtala Aminu of the Federal High Court, Damaturu, Yobe capital, on Friday.
His counsel, Barr Usman Lukman Nuhu, told Daily Trust that his client is challenging Machina, both APC state and National headquarters as well as Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), over exclusion. He said Jinjiri was deprived of participating in the Senatorial primary despite his presence at the venue.
“I believe you have the copy of the result sheets of the primary you could clearly see that my client name and the vote he got were not there,” he said.
He stated the exclusion of an aspirants contravened section (84) sub-section (3 and 4) of the electoral act.
Other seven cases emerging from the APC primary were also presented.
