The All Progressives Congress (APC) has announced Ahmad Lawan as its candidate for the Yobe North senatorial district in the 2023 elections.
This came despite the fact that Bashir Machina, the district’s APC primary winner, refused to step down in favour of Lawan, who was running for the party’s presidential nomination. Abdullahi Adamu, the APC’s national chairman, announced him as the party’s consensus candidate shortly before the primary began.
Several party stakeholders, including members of the national working committee (NWC), objected to the consensus decision, and Bola Tinubu, the former Lagos governor, won the party’s ticket in the June 8 primary.
Machina had insisted that he would not drop out of the Senate race because he had received delegates’ votes in an uncontested election.
“I’m confident he had no intention of returning to the National Assembly.” That is why he ran for president and was unsuccessful. This is the definition of democracy. It’s a free space. People who wanted to compete had a set amount of time to do so. “Timetables were established, party guidelines were developed, and elections were eventually held,” he explained. Lawan was named as the party’s candidate for Yobe North in a signed list of candidates obtained by TheCable yesterday.
Former Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, was also reported to have made the list for the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District, despite former deputy inspector general of police, Mr Udom EKpoudom (rtd.) vowing not to relinquish the APC senatorial ticket he won on May 27, 2022 to Akpabio or anyone else, no matter the pressure. Mr Stephen Ntuekpo, the state party’s chairman, had stated that he had been directed to hold a new primary on June 8, 2022, citing security infractions in the district’s May 27, 2022 APC primary. With 478 votes out of 512 accredited delegates, Akpabio was declared the winner in the new primary.
However, the APC candidate for Yobe North Senatorial District, Bashir Machina, has threatened to sue over the alleged substitution of his name with that of the Senate president, Ahmad Lawan, in the list submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday.
After the ruling party uploaded Lawan’s name on the commission’s server alongside other senatorial candidates from the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory, INEC recognised him as the APC’s candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial District.
Lawan did not run in the party’s presidential primary, where he was defeated by Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The APC, on the other hand, had written to INEC, informing it that the Senate president would be its nominee for the Yobe North senatorial seat.
Machina, who ran for the district’s primary and won, was enraged by the development and promised last night to take the attempt to steal his mandate to court.
Machina told journalists in Abuja yesterday that if his name is not corrected, he will have no choice but to seek legal redress.
“In the list sent to INEC, my name was found to be misrepresented,” Machina said, vowing never to back down on his mandate. My name was not on the list of names that was supposed to be presented to INEC today, and I’m not sure if that was a mistake. For the avoidance of doubt, I am the APC Yobe North zone C senatorial candidate who was duly elected.
“I am the elected candidate; I did not withdraw for anyone and will not withdraw because members of our great party, the delegates, gave me that mandate as a matter of right. As a result, I believe that removing my name in secret is undemocratic, illegal, and, of course, inhumane. Insha Allah, I will take action, beginning by reminding and appealing to my party that if this action is truly done, it must be corrected, particularly if it is done incorrectly. We are actually seeking redress from our party’s National Working Committee, which is led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the national chairman, and is seeking to correct an anomaly.
“I am still the candidate.” I’m hoping that our leaders will take the appropriate steps. As outlined in our guideline, we will work diligently to exploit and explore all available channels. In the event that this is not the case, I will have no choice but to resort to court (legal) action as a Nigerian citizen and law abiding citizen, the constitution of our country being the overall law that governs all aspects of our lives as Nigerians. This is what I intend to convey to Nigerians via this medium: that something unusual and illegal is about to happen, and it is undemocratic. This is a democratically organised political party. The people’s will always reigns supreme, and the best way to demonstrate that will is to vote, as they did to elect me. The electorate in my senatorial district has placed their trust in me, and this is the simplest challenge I will face in protecting their rights.”
