2023: Anxiety For Ahmed Lawan As Bashir Machina Refuses To Step Down From Senate

There’s anxiety in the camp of the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as the Youth Leader in the state, Bashir Machina, has refused all entreaties to step down and hand over the senatorial ticket to him.

Lawan was an aspirant for the APC presidential ticket but was defeated in an election where the party’s National Leader, Bola Tinubu, emerged the winner few days ago.

Machina was the sole candidate for the Yobe North APC senatorial primaries. All those who indicated interest were told not to contest to enable Machina hold the ticket for Lawan in case he loses the presidential election, which he indeed lost.

Lawan and associates of the APC national leaders are now mounting pressure to enable him get the ticket with the party’s National leadership intervening unsuccessfully so far.

The candidate has also been offered some whooping amount of money to step down but has refused according to reports by DailyNigerian.

It was gathered that although Lawan obtained all necessary expression of interest and nomination forms from the party, he did not fill and submit the forms and failed to also submit himself for party screening.

The primary which took place at the Gashua town on May 28, saw Machina garnering the 289 available votes as the sole candidate.

Reports said the APC National Vice Chairman, North East, Mustapha Salihu, is spearheading all efforts to retrieve the ticket for Lawan but he has denied that.

He told journalists that, “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,” Salihu added.

When contacted, the Chief Press Secretary to the Senate President, Tabiowo Ezrel, said he was not aware and so would not have an opinion.