Senate presidency: North-East senators endorse Mark

Posted by admin Latest Politics, Senate Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

SENATORS from the North-East geopolitical zone, on Thursday, endorsed Senator David Mark and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu as their choice for the seat of Senate president and Deputy Senate president for the next Senate.

Senate Minority Leader, Senator Mana Maaji Lawan, who briefed newsmen in Abuja said that the North-East caucus of the senators-elect were not aware of the alleged ambition of senator-elect from Gombe State, Alhaji Danjuma Goje to vie for the position.

He stated that after meeting of the caucus, the senators and senators-elect resolved to endorse Senator Mark to continue as the president of the Senate in the seventh Senate.

Sixteen of the 18 senators from the zone were in attendance, just as members said that they could not reach Goje and Hajia Aisha Alhassan from Taraba State.

In another briefing, zonal coordinators of the Senator Mark campaign for the Senate presidency said 91 senators had endorsed the choice of Senator Mark as the president of the incoming Senate.

Senator Smart Adeyemi, who announced the figure at a meeting of the coordinators with the media, said the 91 lawmakers had appended their signatures compiled in favour of Mark.

He also said the lawmakers cut across party lines, adding that all lawmakers from the South-West were also on board.

Some of the coordinators, who spoke at the media parley, including Smart, Ayogu Eze, Ahmed Lawan, Dahiru Kuta, Zainab Kure, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, Alloysius Etuk Sahabi Yau and senator-elect, Shaaba Lafiagi, said with the quality of leadership shown by Mark in the sixth session of the Senate, the senators needed not to look elsewhere for leadership in the coming session.

Meanwhile, Mark’s closest contender for the Senate presidency, who is the immediate past governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Danjuma Goje, on Thursday, said it will not be possible for him to contest for the office of the president of the Senate.

He said he had been officially excluded from the race by the outgoing sixth Senate, through its recent amendment of the standing order on the ranking of senators, noting that his zone, the North-East, had been officially excluded from the race by the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Goje said being a party man, as well as a prospective senator who believes in the rule of law and teamwork, he decided to publicly announce his resolve not to contest the Senate presidency, on Monday, next week, when the seventh National Assembly would be inaugurated.

In another development, Senator Mark, on Thursday, said the current National Assembly has stabilised democracy and deepen it in the country.

Mark, speaking at the valedictory session of the sixth Senate, on Thursday, said the Senate, which he led, had kept faith with the Nigerian masses and kept hope alive for the common man.

He lauded his colleagues for sticking their honour in defence of the country, by supporting the Doctrine of Necessity which stabilised the country in the event of the protracted illness of the late president, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua.

According to Mark, the sixth Senate broke the jinx of constitution amendment by successfully amending the 1999 Constitution in a record four times.

-Tribunewp_posts