It appears that the dust has not settled for either Ahmad Lawan or Bashir Machina as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the All Progressives Congress (APC) has no candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial contest.
The information is based on the submission of a source from the INEC office in Damaturu that that revealed the electoral umpire did not publish any candidate for the APC in that position for the 2023 election.
The source told The Nation that “What we have is Mohammed Bomoi for Yobe South and Ibrahim Geidam for Yobe East. There is no name for the Yobe North for the APC.”
Similarly, the Head of Voter Education and Publicity at the Damaturu office of INEC, Mrs Rifkatu Duku, affirmed that the APC did not submit credentials for its candidate for the Yobe North seat.
She confirmed that credentials for both Yobe south and Yobe east were received but nothing was received for Yobe north.
”No credentials of APC candidates for Zone C have been submitted to the office from the headquarters. We have received credentials of candidates for the National Assembly and presidential election.
“But we did not get that of Zone C, ie Yobe north for APC. We got that of Yobe south and Yobe east which is the Ibrahim Bomoi and former Governor Gaidam,” Duku said.
Trouble is said to have started after Bashir Machina who won the Yobe North APC primaries refused to step down and give the ticket to Senate President Ahmad Lawan after he lost out at the party’s presidential primaries.
Machina maintained that the people voted for him and not Lawan.
Lawan was one of the aspirants who contested for the APC presidential ticket but suffered defeat in the primary election where the party’s National Leader, Bola Tinubu, emerged as the flagbearer.
Machina is however said to be the sole candidate in the Yobe North APC senatorial primaries as other aspirants who indicated interest were told not to contest to enable Machina hold the ticket for Lawan in case he loses the presidential election.
However, Machina is unwilling to let go of the ticket and has so far refused all entreaties to hand over the ticket.