A Yobe North senatorial candidate, Bashir Sheriff Machina’s refusal to relinquish his ticket to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, may have been influenced by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu and Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni.

Tinubu and Buni instructed Machina not to step down from the contest to teach Lawan a bitter lesson.

As further gathered, Lawan was deceived by a presidency cabal to contest the APC ticket, assuring him that President Muhammadu Buhari was going to retain power in the north.

A source privy to the circumstances that led to Lawan’s declaration to contest for the APC presidential ticket without making proper arrangements to secure a reelection ticket to retain his seat in the Senate, said Lawan was cocksure of succeeding Buhari.

The source said, “Ahmad Lawan was misled by those around the President (Buhari); they assured him that the President was not disposed to letting power out of the north and that he (Lawan) was the preferred candidate.

Seeing his aspiration had acutely traumatized Tinubu, it’s now a payback time because we learned Tinubu and Governor Buni have vowed to stand with Machina,” the source added.