Two APC bigwigs at the Senate, Ahmad Lawan and Godswill Akpabio are set to miss returning to the Senate by 2023. As revealed by an INEC source, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan won’t contest in the 2023 general election because the party didn’t have a candidate on INEC’s list.
The source revealed that the APC slot for Yobe North, the constituency of the Senate President is blank. Also, Senator Godswill Akpabio didn’t appear on the INEC register for Akwa Ibom North West. According to the source, the foregoing is a consequence of the irregularities that transpired during the APC primaries for the two constituencies.
Furthermore, Bashir Machina emerged as the winner of the APC primaries for the Yobe North senatorial district that had INEC officials present. INEC report has it that Machina had 289 votes out of the possible 300, thus confirming his victory. However, APC replaced Machina’s name with Ahmad Lawan while compiling the list for INEC.
Subsequently, the irregularity led to the total disqualification of the party from fielding a candidate for Yobe North. Meanwhile, for Akwa Ibom North-East (Akpabio’s constituency) APC didn’t register any candidates. Though, the Party registered candidates for the North East and South senatorial district respectively.
So far, the build to the 2023 general election has been filled with numerous controversies ranging from candidates’ qualifications. At the moment, APC is on the verge of a crisis due to internal issues. This week, Afrocover reported that APC governors are preparing to meet lawmakers who failed to win their return bids at the primaries. The issue is threatening a major defection by 20 senators from the ruling party to the opposing ones.
