Former Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, spent a staggering $72 million in his bid to emerge as the country’s number three citizen, according to a fresh report.
Recall that former, Akwa Ibom governor, Godswill Akpabio, edged out Yari to clinch the senate presidency last week.
Akpabio was the anointed candidate of President Bola Tinubu. He was also favoured by the APC zoning arrangement.
Distraught by the outcome of the upper legislative chamber leadership election, Yari reportedly landed in a hospital in London, United Kingdom shortly after losing his Senate Presidential bid.
Yari lost at least $72 million in the process as he gave senators at least $500,000 each to secure their votes, according to Sahara reporters.
The online media outfit reports that some of the senators who were paid by Yari, however, abandoned him at the last minute, dealing the former governor a fatal blow that took massive toll on his health.
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.
Yari was reportedly devastated by the loss to Akpabio as he was certain that he would get votes from the senators he gave money,
SaharaReporters also reports that Yari was also swindled by his Campaign Director of Operations, Jimoh Ibrahim, as he refused to hand out the full package Yari gave him to deliver to the senators.
“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.
SaharaReporters learnt that “Yari arrived in London from Abuja on a British Airways flight last Friday” and soon landed in the hospital.
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”.