Senate President Ahmad Lawan’s efforts to clinch the Yobe North Senatorial ticket ‘through the back door’ has failed and the senator will not return to the Red Chamber in 2023.
This is as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has certified the candidacy of Bashir Machina.
Lawan, in his quest to become the next president in 2023 concentrated his efforts in the All Progressives Congress presidential election primary, paying no attention to the senatorial primary of the party, though he was said to have obtained nomination and interest forms for the two positions.
When the senatorial election was conducted, Lawan was missing, a development that easily helped Machina to win the ticket.
However, after the loss of the presidential ticket to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Lawan made moves to claim the Yobe North Senatorial ticket from Machina.
Machina was pressured to surrender the ticket by the APC leadership, the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, insisted that he must surrender the ticket to Lawan by force, by Machina stood his ground, threatening to head to court if his mandate was given to Lawan.
However, all that politicking seems to have come to an end as the INEC says it is recognising Machina as the APC candidate for Yobe North and not Lawan.
A certified true copy of INEC’s report from the May 28, 2022, election showed Mr Machina scored 289 votes out of 300 delegates, corroborating the politician’s public claim that he won the primary and legally emerged candidate.
The document, certified by the electoral office on June 23, 2022, did not mention Ahmad Lawan, but Machina.
With the development, Lawan, who since 1999 has remained in the National Assembly, will be missing in the Red Chamber in 2023.