Senate President, Ahmad Lawan’s stay in the National Assembly is over as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) certified the candidacy of Bashir Machina.

While Lawan was busy pursuing his presidential ambition, Machina won the Yobe North Senatorial primary election to represent APC in next year’s election.

Having lost the presidential ticket to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Lawan now wants to claim the Yobe North Senatorial ticket from Machina.

There had been immense pressure on Machina to surrender the ticket to Lawan who never contested the election and he had boldly refused as the APC’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu insisted that he must surrender the ticket to Lawan by force.

But INEC said it is recognising Machina as the APC candidate for Yobe North and not Lawan.

A certified true copy of INEC’s report from the May 28, 2022, election showed Mr Machina scored 289 votes out of 300 delegates, corroborating the politician’s public claim that he won the primary and legally emerged candidate.

The document, certified by the electoral office on June 23, 2022, did not mention Ahmad Lawan, but Machina.

The Senate President has been at the National Assembly since 1999, making him arguably the oldest lawmaker at the Assembly.

(PMNewsNigeria)