Ahmad Lawan, president of the senate, has been listed as the candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Yobe north senatorial district for the 2023 elections.
The development comes hours after Bashir Machina, who won the APC primary for the district, insisted that he would not step down for the senate president.
Lawan had contested the APC presidential ticket, and hours before the primary commenced, he was announced by Abdullahi Adamu, APC national chairman, as the consensus candidate of the party.
However, the consensus decision was rejected by several party stakeholders — including members of the national working committee (NWC) — and Bola Tinubu, former Lagos governor, went on to win the party’s ticket at the primary which was concluded on June 8.
Speaking on Wednesday in an interview with Channels Television, Machina had insisted that he will not withdraw from the senatorial race since he got the votes of delegates in an unopposed election.
“I’m sure he did not plan to go back to the national assembly. That is why he contested for the presidency and lost. This is democracy. The space is free. A certain period of time was given for people to want to contest. Timetables were set, guidelines were produced by the parties, and eventually elections were held,” Machina had said.
But according to the signed list of candidates seen by TheCable on Friday, Lawan is listed as the party’s candidate for Yobe north.
Neither the senate president nor Machina is yet to react to the development.
