Senate President Ahmad Lawan has said his re-election into the Upper Chamber for a fifth term is victory for the people of Yobe North Senatorial District.
A statement yesterday in Abuja by the Special Adviser (Media) to the Senate President, Ola Awoniyi, said Lawan won Saturday’s senatorial election on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) by polling 91,318 votes, representing 74.7 per cent of the total valid votes (122,193), to defeat his closest rival, Bello Ilu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 22,849 votes.
The statement said Lawan had a comfortable win in each of the six local government areas under Yobe North Senatorial District, namely: Machina, Nguru, Yusufari, Bade, Jakusko, and Karasuwa.
It also said the Senate President told reporters before his departure to Abuja from his home town in Gashua that his people in Yobe North prayed, fasted and did everything possible to ensure his election back to the Senate.
Quoting Lawan, the statement said: “The victory is not mine; the victory belongs to the people of Yobe North Senatorial District.
“You know how well they did to ensure that we got the nomination to run for this seat. They fasted, they prayed and they did so many things. They sacrificed, just because they wanted me to run.
“Therefore, they actualised their dream of voting me back to the Senate on Saturday when they voted en masse. To their credit, this is the highest number of votes against all the previous elections that I participated in.
“Therefore, I want to take this opportunity to thank the Almighty Allah for His blessings and thank the people of Yobe North Senatorial District for sticking with me, for believing in me, for trusting me to renew my mandate once again, for me to go back to the Senate and the 10th National Assembly to represent them. I thank them.
“I want to also thank the APC, both at the national and state levels, for making sure that as a party, they stayed behind me all through the period that we had some challenges.
“And, of course, I want to also thank the Governor of Yobe State, His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni, for believing that this party and our people are really so significant in politics in this state.
“The governor stayed all through the travails to ensure that the Yobe North Senatorial District poll is contested by someone that the people of Yobe North believe and trust.”