An Abuja-based human rights lawyer who has been identified as Pelumi Olajengbesi, has described the controversial replacement of the name of Bashir Machina, who is the Yobe North Senatorial candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) with that of the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan in the recently conducted voting process, as quite unconstitutional and fraudulent.
Pelumi Olajengbesi who issued a statement on Sunday had unequivocally stated that Abdullahi Adamu, the APC national chairman, was actually hellbent on foisting Lawan on members of the party as “consensus candidate” during the buildup to APC presidential primary, announcing the Senate President against the will of members of the National Working Committee of the party and other presidential contestants.
Olajengbesi, who is the Principal Partner of Law Corridor had revealed that Adamu wants “enthrone” Lawan as the party’s Yobe North senatorial candidate, in spite of the fact that he (Ahmad Lawan) did not contest the Senatorial primary election.
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Machina, who was declared the APC candidate at the Yobe North senatorial primary election, had stated emphatically that he would not step down for the Senate President in 2023 general elections. Machina’s name, however, was replaced by Lawan’s on the list of Yobe senatorial candidates sent from the APC to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The statement explained, “Now that Lawan has lost the presidential primary to former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, it is shocking that the APC chairman again threw away constitutional democracy and moved on to enthrone Lawan as Yobe North senatorial candidate for the ruling party when it was apparent that the Senate President didn’t participate in the Senatorial primary.”
The statement added that it is a disgrace the party to allow such to happen and advised Machina to seek redress in court to ensure the proper thing is done.
The Lawyer also stated that the APC has disgraced and embarrassed itself as a shameless party with no respect for constitutional democracy which President Muhammadu Buhari preaches.
