APC Gets 64 Senate Seats, PDP 45

by GEORGE OJI on Apr 1, 2015
Nigerian National Mirror

All Progressives Congress, APC, has secured 64 senators to Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s 45 after Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

The Senate resumed yesterday from a two-week break to participate in the elections and immediately adjourned till April 14 for lack of quorum.

Some of the PDP senators who lost to APC include Senators Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna North), Deputy Senate Leader, Abdul Ningi (Bauchi South), Smart Adeyemi (Kogi West), Hosea Agboola (Oyo North) and Zaynab Kure (Niger South).

Following outcome of the polls, which has seen APC take over majority in the Senate, there are concerns over what becomes the fate of the Senate President, David Mark, who has made history as the only senator to be elected for the fifth time since commencement of the current democratic dispensation.

The same fate also awaits Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

National Assembly watchers are concerned that Mark and his deputy, who are presiding officers, would relinquish those exalted offices and return to the floor of the Senate, where they would at best hold principal offices as minority senators.

After the botched sitting yesterday, Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma- Egba, while fielding questions from journalists urged Nigerians to remain calm and law-abiding.

“My advice is that we should be lawful in our conducts, we should not take the laws into our hands and election is a process, so no matter the outcome, after the process, we still have further processes so, we should follow the law,” he said.

Commenting on the fate of the 2015 budget proposal, which is now before the National Assembly, the leader explained that the National Assembly has up till June to pass the budget.