Former Senator, Shehu Sani has revealed why he lost his re-election bid in 2019.

Sani who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the Eighth Senate said his decision to oppose former Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s move to obtain a 340 million dollars foreign loan cost him his seat in the Senate.

He made this known in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, March 10.

“I was insistent on speaking truth to power, and that was why I lost my re-election bid in 2019. Former Gov. Nasir El-Rufai was going for a 340 million dollar loan and we said ‘No’.

”Some of us told him that such a venture would impact negatively on our people, but he went ahead and did that, while he perceived us as his political enemies.

"This political battle with El-Rufai affected several other politicians, resulting in our leaving the party en masse.

“My own very case was that I stood up to the governor and I paid the price by losing my seat,” he said.

The popular pro-democracy activist, however, said that today, he had been vindicated.

“At that time, the governor was opposed to me; the state assembly members were opposed to me and many political figures there were opposed to me.

“Today, I am vindicated because even the governor of the state today has made it public how the finances and the economy of the state have been strangulated by that loan.

“Many projects were littered, uncompleted and abandoned all over the state. Kaduna today has become the second highest indebted state in the country.

“So I am vindicated, even though I lost my seat,” he said.

Sani said he was satisfied with the role he played on the controversial loan at that time.

“I’m satisfied that, at least, when I die, nobody will look to my grave and say this is the person who signed approval for the loan that we are going to pay in 100 years.

“The vindication is more important to me than my return to the National Assembly,’’ he said.

NBA