The
result of the National Assembly election declared by the Independent
National Electoral Commission on Tuesday has pushed the opposition All
Progressives Congress to the majority status in the 109 membership
Senate.
Before the election, the Peoples Democratic Party
enjoyed the majority status in the red chamber with 64 members while the
APC has 41. Other parties, like the Labour Party, the Accord Party and
the Social Democratic Party, shared the remaining five seats.
The APC will now have 64 senators; the PDP, 45; and the Labour Party, one.
The
development, our correspondent observed, will obviously alter the
configuration of the Senate leadership in the 8th Senate which would be
inaugurated in June this year, because the opposition APC which is
currently in the minority, would constitute the principal officers.
For
instance, the current Senate President, David Mark who is returning to
the Senate for the fifth time, will lose his seat to an APC member while
the change in gear will also affect other principal officers like the
Deputy Senate President, Senate Leader, Deputy Senate Leader, Chief
Whip; and Deputy Chief Whip.
Apart from Mark and his deputy, Ike
Ekweremadu who won the election to return to the Senate, other
principal officers like the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma -Egba; his
deputy, Abdul Ningi; Chief Whip, Bello Gwarzo; and his deputy, Hosea
Agboola, all lost their bid to return.
The current configuration
is set to automatically transform the status of the APC members,
especially the principal officers from minority to the majority.
For
instance, the Minority Leader, Senator George Akume, according to
sources, may likely emerge the new senate president, although some of
his colleagues believed that another ranking senator should be elected
since Mark, his kinsman from Benue man, would be relinquishing the seat
after eight years.
Credit: Sunday Aborisade/Punch
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