The President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan’s return to the upper legislative next year is under serious threat as he’s currently in a showdown with his alternate candidate over release of the senatorial ticket to him.
The number three citizen had lost the the presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the party’s national convention held on June 8, where Bola Tinubu emerged the winner.
The president of the Senate was initially pencilled as the consensus candidate of the party, but 13 Northern governors vehemently opposed the idea, insisting power must return to the South.
However, things could get worse for him as the winner of the Yobe North APC senatorial primaries, Bashir Machina, has refused to step down for him.
According to DAILY NIGERIAN, since the winner of the senatorial primaries refused to step down, the Senate president is now seeking the intervention of the presidency to get back his senatorial ticket.
All effort by Mr Lawan’s associates to prevail on Machina to withdraw for the president of the Senate failed as the senatorial candidate insisted that he won’t step down.
Lawan was secretly given the INEC form by the APC headquarters to fill for submission, although he didn’t submit himself for party screening and didn’t participate in the senatorial primary election which took place in Gashua town on May 28, the newspaper quoted sources who are familiar with the development to have said.
In the primaries, Mr Machina, who was the sole candidate, got 289 votes.
According to sources, Lawan, alongside the APC National Vice Chairman, North East, Mustapha Salihu, is trying to ‘forcefully take over’ the ticket from Mr Machina.
However, the APC National Vice Chairman, North East said he never interfered in the local party decisions in Yobe.
“I don’t interfere with local party arrangement in states. Yobe has its own unique way of primaries, which is a general consensus.
“All aspirants who obtained the party’s nomination forms nationwide have filled the withdrawal forms, which is a clear consent to withdraw in case of any superior interest, and with the consent of the party stakeholders in the state.
“I’m aware that it is a national party policy for aspirants who lost the presidential ticket to return to their seats in the Senate. You can see Godswill Akpabio has already reclaimed his senatorial ticket,” Mr Salihu added.