Lawan: My Constituents Fasted to Enable Me Win Senatorial Seat

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has narrated how he eventually got back his ticket to contest for the Yobe North Senatorial seat after an initial setback.

Lawan was re-elected into the Senate for the fifth term by his constituents in Yobe North on Saturday.

He said his people, apart from voting massively for him on election day, had earlier prayed and fasted for his victory.

He said, “These people fasted on their own. The old people – women. In fact, I joined in the fast when I saw that youths in the zone started fasting. They fasted for three or four days consecutively praying to God that we get judgement. And we got it.

“When I went home the following Saturday after the judgement, it was an emotional reunion between me and my constituents. Some were in tears of joy.”

Lawan added, “You will recall that when the crisis about who will run for the Senate seat for Yobe North started, the matter was taken to court.

“At the Federal High Court Damaturu, somebody else was given judgement and immediately, the following morning, I issued a statement signed by me that I accepted the judgement of the Federal High Court Damaturu giving the Senate seat to somebody else and that I was not going to appeal the judgement and I meant it and I didn’t have any doubt about what I was doing.

“I was thoroughly convinced of what I was doing. But the people of Yobe North stood up in unison and in solidarity. They said that Senate seat for Yobe North is not my personal thing. It is their own.

“So while they respect my opinion and my right to say something that I said before, they wanted an appeal against the judgement.

“The party at the state level, APC, my party, took up the gauntlet. His Excellency, the Governor of Yobe State also took up the gauntlet and the party at the national level, the APC headquarters also took up the gauntlet and the party appealed. Of course, they lost at the Appeal Court.

“And at the Supreme Court, the judgement came in our favour. We thank the Almighty God for giving us the judgement because God has plans for all of us and there is a popular adage that ‘man proposes, God disposes.”

“While I was ready not to contest again because of my decision, God did not see it that way. God look at the hearts of the most ordinary people that I represent.

“All through my over 20 years in the National Assembly and, with this one, seven contested elections consecutively, I have never seen a show of love like this one. And that is why I said I am going to carry this congratulatory card to Gashua to show my constituents.”

Speaking further, he said: “I campaigned for two days – Wednesday and Thursday. We didn’t have time. Even if we didn’t go out to campaign, people were already mobilised. The outcome of the election was the best I ever had because they voted more than at any other time for this 2023.

“Yobe North people deserve every accolade. Infact, I need your prayers that I’m able to give them the kind of representation that will make them happy because they have made me and all my supporters quite happy.”