The return of Senate President Ahmad Lawan come 2023 is currently being threatened as the winner of the Yobe North All Progressives Congress senatorial primary, Bashir Machina, has refused to step down.
Mr Lawan, who represents Yobe North in the Senate, contested and lost a bid to secure the APC presidential ticket at the party’s national convention held on June 8, where ex-governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, emerged the winner.
As reported by Daily Nigerian, since his defeat, Lawan has been mounting pressure on the Presidency to get back his senatorial ticket.
All efforts by Lawan’s cronies to convince Machina to step down failed as the senatorial candidate insisted that he won’t withdraw.
Failure of Lawan to persuade Machina to step down would see to an end of the 24 years stay of Lawan in the National Assembly who was first elected as a member of the House of Representatives in 1999.
Lawan was in the green chamber for two terms before crossing over to the red chamber after the 2007 general elections.
In the primaries, Machina, who was the sole candidate, got 289 votes.
According to sources, Lawan, with the APC National Vice Chairman, North East, Mustapha Salihu, has been trying to ‘forcefully take over’ the ticket from Machina.
When contacted on the allegations, Salihu 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,” Salihu added.