Ahmad Lawan, the current Senate President, easily gained reelection as the Senator representing Yobe North in Yobe State.
On Sunday night, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officially proclaimed Mr Lawan, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the victor of the election. Lawan received 91,318 votes.
With this showing, he garnered support from 122,193 voters, or 74.7 per cent of the overall valid vote total, easily defeating Bello Ilu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who received 22,849 votes.
Mr Lawan has been a member of the National Assembly continuously since 1999, initially winning a seat in the House of Representatives in the first two elections and the Senate in the subsequent five elections.
Mr Lawan’s candidature for the election was met with some opposition. In the beginning, he attempted to run for president. But, after losing to Bola Tinubu in the presidential primaries, he decided to run for the Senate.
It was already too late for him to unseat Bashir Machina as the party’s nominee for senator when he decided to get into the fray.
Although the APC first tried to make room for Mr Lawan by pushing him aside and holding a new primary, the senate president ultimately emerged victorious.
After that, the party officially nominated the senate president as its candidate for the senatorial zone of INEC.
The lengthy dispute over the ticket ultimately reached the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which, unexpectedly, ruled in Mr Lawan’s favour.
