Senator Shehu Sani, on Saturday, October 6, reportedly withdrew from the senatorial primary election of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for Kaduna central, which he had represented since 2015 when he was elected.
Sani, who is currently representing the Kaduna central senatorial district in the Senate, announced the withdrawal in a statement issued by his media aide, Abdulsamad Amadi, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna.
“We wish to inform the general public that Senator Shehu Sani is not part of, and is not participating in a purported Kaduna central APC senatorial primaries.
“The office of Senator Shehu Sani has not, and will not send anybody as its 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 today.
“Consequently, anybody that goes there does so at his or her own freewill and does not in anyway represent the interest of Sen. Shehu Sani.
“The senator and his team are law abiding citizens and loyal party members who will always obey the directives of the National leadership of our great party,” Sani said.
Meanwhile, more than 3, 200 delegates are taking part in the senatorial primaries taking place at the Umaru Musa Yaradua Multipurpose Sports Hall, Kaduna.
Four aspirants are in the race for the party’s ticket to represent the Kaduna central senatorial zone.
They are: Malam Uba Sani, Special Adviser on Political and Intergovernmental Affairs to Governor Nasiru El-Rufai; Sani Saleh who lost the seat to Shehu Sani in 2015 general elections; Usman Ibrahim, a businessman, and Shamsideen Shehu Giwa.
It was learnt that Prof Edie Floyd-Igbo, the APC’s coordinator for the national and state Assembly primaries in Kaduna central senatorial zone, told NAN that 37 delegates selected from each ward across the seven local government areas that make up the district were voting in the exercise.
Floyd-Igbo said there were also five or three statutory delegates from each of the wards in the seven local government areas that make up the central senatorial district.
The report said that delegates drawn from Giwa, Kajuru, Chikun, Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Birnin Gwari and Igabi local government areas that make up the zone are partaking in the exercise.
NAN also reports that supporters of some of the aspirants had earlier staged a protest when the APC announced Shehu as the only contestant cleared by the party’s NWC to run for the Senate seat in the 2019 polls.
Mallam Uba Sani had also obtained a high court injunction stopping the senatorial primaries.
TRACK NEWS earlier reported that Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state allegedly written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari listing the sins of Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna central district.
