Senate President Ahmad Lawan won’t be returning to the upper parliamentary chambers after his political ally refused to hand over APC ticket for Yobe North Senatorial District district.

Mr Lawan had sought the presidential ticket of the ruling part earlier this month. But when he was defeated by Bola Tinubu, he tried to return to his district to claim its senatorial ticket.

But Bashir Machina, who had won the ticket since last month’s senatorial primaries in Yobe, said he would not surrender it under any circumstances.

“I write to reaffirm that I remain committed to the mandate which I won at the primaries, and I have not in any form or manner communicated otherwise,” Mr Machina said in a June 13 letter to party chairman Abdullahi Adamu.

Mr Machina said he scored 289 out of 300 votes cast by delegates at primaries and vowed not to cede his mandate to Mr Lawan or anyone else.

“I have been informed of a purported malicious; and mischievous report and insinuation to the contrary,” he said. “I never at any time signed or communicated any intent…to vacate the mandate, which was won at the primaries.”

“I am totally committed to my mandate and am working towards delivering Yobe North Senatorial District to our great party,” he said.

Mr Lawan, first elected to Senate in 1999 and became Senate President in 2019, did not return a request for comments. His spokesman declined comments.

Mr Lawan’s failure to get Mr Machina to back down did not appear to follow recent cases of placeholder tickets.

Governor Bala Mohammed reclaimed the gubernatorial ticket in Bauchi after losing the PDP presidential ticket to Atiku Abubakar. He had used his aide to secure the ticket meanwhile.

Governor David Umahi used his brother as a placeholder for Ebonyi South Senatorial District and easily convinced him to surrender the ticket.