There are strong indications that Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, may not return to Senate in 2023 as the winner of the Yobe North APC senatorial primary election, Bashir Machina, reportedly refused to step down for him.
Lawan, it was gathered, had considered the senatorial ticket of the party as an alternative to the presidential ticket.
The Senate President came fourth in the APC presidential primaries held at Eagle Square in Abuja last week with 152 votes.
The presidential primary election was won by the party’s national leader, Bola Tinubu.
Lawan has been in the National Assembly since 1999, having spent 12 years in the House of Representatives before moving to the Senate in 2007.
It was however, learnt that Lawan has since been mounting pressure on the presidency to get back his senatorial ticket after Machina refused to step down for him.
All efforts by Lawan’s loyalists to convince Machina to step down for the Senate President were said to have failed as the senatorial candidate insisted that he won’t withdraw.
READ ALSO: APC primaries: Why I contested against Tinubu — Lawan
Machina, who was the sole candidate, had polled 289 votes in senatorial primaries held in Gashua, Yobe State on May 28.
According to sources, Lawan, reached out to the APC National Vice Chairman, North East, Mustapha Salihu, to “forcefully take over” the senatorial ticket from Machina.
Reacting to the allegations, Salihu, said he never interfered in the local party decisions in Yobe State.
He said: “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.”
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