Ahmad Lawan, president of the senate might have lost out of his bid to return to the red chamber as documents of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have shown that Bashir Machina is the duly nominated candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Yobe north senatorial district in the 2023 polls.
In a certified true copy (CTC) of the report of INEC officials that monitored the primary election and signed by Omale Samuel, dated May 28, 2022, Machina scored 289 votes out of the 300 delegates that participated in the exercise.
Also, according to a report from the Yobe State office of INEC on the Yobe north senatorial primary election (Zone ‘C’) shows that the exercise was held in Gashua, the headquarters of Bade local government area of the State.
Zone ‘C’ senatorial district comprises Bade, Yusufari, Jakusko, Nguru, Karasuwa, and Machina local government areas.
The report indicated that the primary election started by 11:30am as scheduled and security agents as well as respective electoral officers of the affected local governments were all present at the venue.
“As the primaries was about to start, all the contestants and all party officials were present to settle with all the delegates are present. The primaries was conducted by INEC returning officer, Alh. Danjuma Isa Munga.
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“The primaries was started by opening prayers from the secretary of the planning committee, Alh. Lawan Modu Sheriff,” the CTC stated.
The APC Yobe North senatorial ticket has stoked controversy after the winner, Machina, insisted that he would not step down for Lawan who presently represents the senatorial district.
The senate president had contested for the APC presidential ticket but lost to Bola Tinubu but the Abdullahi Adamu-led APC national leadership of APC forwarded his name to INEC for recognition as the party’s candidate for the Yobe North election.
But speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner in charge of publicity said INEC has not published the final list of validly nominated candidates.
He said: “The final list of validly nominated candidates will be published by the Independent National Electoral Commission on the 20th day of September, 2022. And that is for presidential and national assembly candidates.”
