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Breaking:Ex-Governor Yari Lands In London Hospital After Losing To Senate President, Akpabio
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 told SaharaReporters 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.
SaharaReporters 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 told SaharaReporters 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.
Beyond that, SaharaReporters 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.
