Ndoma Egba

… As Mark, Ekweremadu, Akpabio, Chime’s chief of staff, Andy Uba others win PDP senatorial tickets

Yesterday, the senato­rial primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held across the country witnessed a major upset with the leader of the Red Chamber, Ndoma Egba crashing out of the ex­ercise.

This is even as the primaries, which recorded pockets of con­troversies in some states, saw the Senate President, David Mark and his Deputy, Ike Ekwer­emadu picking tickets of their respective senatorial zones.

Daily Sun, which monitored the primaries, reports that even though the exercise was largely peaceful, some states witnessed pockets of parallel primaries.

    Cross River.

The major upset of the prima­ries was the crashing out of the race by Ndoma Egba

The Senate leader lost the bat­tle to return to the Red Chamber. In the primaries for Central Senatorial zone of Cross River held at Ikom Local Government Council secretariat, Ikom, John Owan Eno, polled 2017 votes while Ndoma Egba had 37 votes only.

Ambassador Mark Egbe scored 20 votes to clinch the third position in the tension-soaked race. Announcing the result, the returning officer, Mr. Uko Inaku, said: “by the power conferred on me, I do hereby state that Eno has been declared the winner having polled 276 votes out of 276 votes cast.”

At press time, some of the results of the primaries showed that the Senate President, Da­vid Mark and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu picked tickets for another term at the Red Cham­ber.

While Mark is going for a re­cord fifth term, Ekweremadu is going for his fourth tenure at the National Assembly.

    Benue

In yesterday’s primaries, the Senate president won the race to represent Benue South after his opponent, Chief Mike Onoja withdrew from the exercise.

Mark was elected to the Senate in 1999 and in 2007, he emerged the Senate president and was re-elected to office in 2011.

Also, Governor Gabriel Sus­wam emerged unopposed for the Benue North East Senato­rial District primaries held at the Akume Atongo Stadium, Gboko as Senator Barnabas Gemade was said to have withdrawn from the race few days before the exercise.

For the Benue North West, Chief Mike Mku picked the ticket.

    Enugu

In the Enugu West Senatorial zone, Ekweremadu won the PDP ticket in the exercise, which held at the Awgu Local Government headquarters.

Ekweremadu was elected un­opposed after Governor Sullivan Chime backed out of the con­test following the peace moves initiated by President Goodluck Jonathan.

In Enugu East, former Chief of Staff to Governor Sullivan Chime, Mrs Ifeoma Nwobodo, who emerged in a parallel pri­mary election was declared the winner, and defeated five other aspirants, including the incum­bent Senator, Gil Nnaji.

In one of the parallel prima­ries in Enugu North Senatorial zone signed by a returning offi­cer, Raymond Ochioha, Martin Oke scored 184 votes, Okwy Nwodo 46 votes and Chuka Utazi getting 18 votes while four votes were voided.

Meanwhile, in the list ob­tained from the state party sec­retariat for the House of Repre­sentatives primaries in Enugu, incumbents Stella Ngwu, King­sley Ebenyi and Toby Okechuk­wu picked the tickets for the Igbo-Etiti/Uzo Uwani, Enugu East/Isiuzo and Aninri/Awgu/ Oji River constituencies respec­tively.

Dennis Agbo scored 61 votes to emerge victorious in the con­test for the Igbo-Eze North/ Udenu Constituency ticket. His closest rival, Simon Atigwe, scored 39 while Ifeanyi Eze came third with seven votes.

Former state Commissioner for Enugu Capital Territory, Ikechukwu Uguwegede, scored 83 votes to beat Vita Abba, who scored 40 to pick the ticket for the Nsukka/Igboeze South con­stituency.

Former Commissioner for Lands, Dr. Chukwue­meka Ujam, won the ticket for the Nkanu East/ Nkanu West constituency ticket. Chime Oji won the contest in Enugu North/Enugu South con­stituency while that of Udi went to Dennis Amadi, who polled 140 votes to beat incumbent Og­buefi Ozomgbachi.

    Akwa Ibom

Akwa Ibom State Gover­nor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, emerged the PDP senatorial can­didate for Ikot Ekpene Senato­rial District after his only known opponent and the incumbent senator for the area, Mr. Aloysius Etok surprisingly stepped down from the race.

Etok is not the only senator from Akwa Ibom that would not return to the Senate next year. Senator Ita Enang’s attempt to return to the National Assembly where he has been since1999 – three terms in the House of Rep­resentatives and a term in the Senate- suffered a humiliating anti-climax as he was roundly beaten to only three votes against 368 scored by the immediate past commissioner for finance in the state, Mr. Bassey Albert Akpan.

    Niger State

Also in Niger State, Governor Babangida Aliyu and Senator Zaynab Kure won the primaries of the PDP for Niger East and Niger South districts respec­tively.

In the result released in Bida for the Niger South Senato­rial zone, Zainab Kure defeated the immediate past Niger State chairman of PDP, Abdulrah­man Enagi with 328 to eight votes while Aliyu got 281 votes to clinch the ticket for zone B against 86 votes polled by his rival, Adamu Idris Kuta.

    Plateau State

In Plateau State, Governor Jonah Jang won the Senate ticket of the PDP for Plateau North by polling 273 votes as against 18 votes polled by his opponent.

A total of 291 delegates par­ticipated in the primaries, which held under a peaceful atmo­sphere.

    Anambra

Also the primaries for Anam­bra South Zone conducted inside the main bowl of Ekwu­lobia Township Stadium, Aguata Council Area of the state, Sena­tor Andy Uba polled 308 votes to beat Chuma Nzeribe and Dr. Obinna Uzoh who polled 60 and 49 votes respectively to clinch the ticket

Chairman of the committee, Mr. Tremie (Jnr.) who returned him as candidate of the party for the Anambra South Sena­torial district commended the delegates for the orderly man­ner in which they conducted themselves. Former Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah and Uche Ekwunife also won the PDP tickets

    Bayelsa

Chairman of Senate Com­mittee on Water Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, represent­ing Bayelsa West Senatorial District lost his re-election bid to the former Chairman of Bayelsa State Scholarship Board, Evang. Foster Ogola.


Source: Sun