The All Progressives Congress’ senatorial candidate for Yobe North, Bashir Sheriff Machina, has been declared the victor by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
A certified authentic copy of INEC’s report from the May 28, 2022, election stated that Machina received 289 votes out of 300 delegates, supporting the politician’s assertion that he won the primary and so emerged as the legitimate candidate.
On June 23, 2022, the electoral office certified the document.
This is in response to threats made by the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu, who threatened serious consequences if Machina refused to give the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, his ticket.
Adamu asserted that the party is in charge and that it has the exclusive authority to choose who will run on its ticket in any election.
He said, “There’s nothing in the law stopping the Senate President from contesting for another nomination just because he lost a presidential bid.”
Adamu had nominated Lawan as the APC’s candidate for the Yobe North senatorial election scheduled for February 2023, stating that a secret primary had taken place and Lawan had allegedly come out on top.
This was revealed in a statement released on Friday by Machina’s campaign organization.
The campaign organization claims that certain thugs want Machina’s life.
In order to protect the Yobe APC senatorial candidate, it requested security services to take the appropriate action.
The statement had read, “Information at the disposal of Bashir Machina Campaign Organisation is that there is a security threat to the senatorial candidate of APC for Yobe North, Hon. Bashir Sheriff Machina, especially in relation to his refusal to relinquish his legally acquired ticket.
“Credible sources confirmed that some people want him arrested or at worst eliminated. They have resorted to employing diabolical means over unlawful means, in pressurising him to step down.
“We use this opportunity to notify the security agencies of this threat or likely breach of security around our senatorial candidate, we believe the security agencies will rise up to the occasion and take the threat seriously.
“As Campaign Organisation, we warned that the people behind his ordeal in the last four days should be held responsible if any mishap happens to him. By this notice, we are putting everybody on red alert.”
Lawan had instead of contesting for the Yobe North Senatorial ticket challenged for the presidential ticket of the party but lost to a former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu.
