Senator Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central) yesterday lost the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He lost the party’s ticket to the Special Adviser to Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai on Political Affairs, Mallam Uba Sani.
There has been no love lost between Sani and El-Rufai with the governor believed to be bent on denying the senator a return ticket to the upper chamber.
The governor’s aide, who has the blessings of his principal, scored 2,088 votes to the senator’s 15.
Chairman of the Primary Election Committee and a national official of the party, Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, declared Sani as winner.
Former Kaduna North Local Government Council Caretaker chairman, Usman Ibrahim, came second with 129 votes.
Shehu Sani’s predecessor in the Senate, Gen. Mohammed Sani Saleh, scored 55 votes while Shamsudeen Giwa polled six votes.
Iduoriyekemwen said a total of 2,383 voters were accredited while there were 35 invalid votes.
Some security personnel barred journalists from covering the election in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The primary election held despite the automatic ticket offered the incumbent by the national secretariat of the party.
But the senator distanced himself from the exercise, which held at the Umar Musa Yar’Adua Hall, Murtala Square, Kaduna.
In a statement by his Special Assistant Media, Abdulsamad Amadi, Sani said he was not participating in what he described as an ‘illegality’.
According to him, “The office of Senator Shehu Sani has not, and will not send anybody as their representative or agent to that illegality that some desperate people are organising.
“This is because the national leadership of the APC has not scheduled any senatorial primaries in Kaduna central on Saturday.
“Consequently, anybody that goes there does so at his or her own free will and does not in any way represent the interest of Sen Shehu Sani.”