EXCLUSIVE: Yari Lands In London After Losing Senate Presidency To Akpabio Despite spending $72 million
Former Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari last week ended up in a hospital in London, United Kingdom shortly after losing his Senate Presidential bid to Godswill Akpabio.
Sources said on Monday that Yari lost at least $72 million in the process as he gave senators at least $500,000 each to secure their votes. It was however learnt that some of the senators who were paid by Yari ditched him at the last minute, landing the former governor in the foreign hospital.
Akpabio, former governor and also former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, was last Tuesday elected as Senate President during the inauguration of the 10th Senate.
Out of the 109 Senators in the upper legislative chambers of the National Assembly, Akpabio, an All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker from Akwa Ibom South-South, won with 63 votes. Senator Abdulaziz Yari from Zamfara North West, who is also of the APC, got 46 votes.
Akpabio was the anointed candidate of President Bola Tinubu. He was also favoured by the APC zoning arrangement.
The former Akwa Ibom governor was one of the APC presidential aspirants who stepped down for Tinubu during the party’s presidential primary election in June 2022.
Akpabio withdrew from the race, saying he would support Tinubu to be the next president of Nigeria.
Akpabio, therefore, asked delegates supporting him to cast their votes for Tinubu in the primary election.
Naija News House had reported that Senator Ali Ndume from Borno South, nominated Akpabio while Senator Elisha Abbo from Adamawa North nominated Yari ahead of the election in the upper chamber.
The minute Abbo nominated Yari, some lawmakers started protesting but Abbo stood his ground and challenged those opposed to Yari’s nomination to go to court.
However, sources said that Yari was badly hit by the loss to Akpabio as he was confident that he would get votes from the senators he gave money.
It was also learnt that Yari was also reportedly scammed by his Campaign Director of Operations, Jimoh Ibrahim.
“Yari landed in the hospital after he lost at least $72 million to Senators who received at least $500,000 from him and ditched him at the last minute.
“Also, his Campaign Director of Operations, Jimoh Ibrahim who was put in charge of the distribution of funds and gadgets like branded gold-plated iPhone 14 to senators reportedly scammed him.
“Some Senators met Jimoh Ibrahim in suites at Hilton Hotel in Abuja but Ibrahim did not fully deliver their ‘entitlements’ to them,” one of the sources said.
Naija News House learnt that “Yari arrived in London from Abuja on a British Airways flight last Friday” and soon landed in the hospital.
How sources could not confirm if the Senator had left the hospital and returned to Nigeria yet.
Last Friday, Yari was quoted as saying if he knew he was not contesting against only Akpabio and would not win, he would have participated in the election.
In an interview with BBC Hausa, He lamented that there was a gang-up of some top government officials against him.
He said from his analysis before the election, he had more people on his side, adding that he “didn’t contest against Akpabio”.
According to Yari, if he knew he would not be up against Akpabio, he would not have joined the race.
Yari said he contested against President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, governors and some other top government officials
