Adamu Threatens Machina over Yobe Senate Seat, Warns Him to Tread with Caution

* Says APC hasn’t broken any law substituting his name

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, yesterday, resorted to subtle threats against Mr. Bashir Machina, the man who won the party’s primary for Yobe North Senate seat, when the current occupant of the office and Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, went in chase of the presidential ticket.

Adamu, who warned Machina to tread with caution, especially, that his comments were becoming overbearing, said delisting Machina’s name from the list of names submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), was in order.

Machina had won the party’s ticket for Yobe North Senatorial District, but the party substituted his name with Lawan’s after the senate president could not clinch the presidential ticket.

Speaking with the BBC Hausa, Adamu said, the party leadership violated no law in substituting Machina’s name for Lawan.
Although the APC had attached a ‘Letter of Withdrawal’ to the expression of interest and nomination forms, which it mandated every aspirant to sign, Machina, however denied ever signing it.

Thus, in a direct message to Machina, who has insisted on recovering his ticket, Adamu said, “Machina should be very careful. I will advise him to tread carefully; his comments are becoming too overbearing and I will advise him to be careful. To the best of my knowledge as the national chairman, we didn’t violate any law in substituting his name.”

Also, addressing the gale of defections currently unsettling the ruling APC, Adamu, who took full responsibility for the developing crisis, said the defection incidents were not peculiar to the APC alone, but blamed the media for allegedly exaggerating the crisis.