By Nuel Suji, Abuja.
The President of the Senate, Sen. David Mark and his Deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu have emerged as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), senatorial candidates for Benue South and Enugu West Senatorial zones respectively in the 2015 election.
Announcing the results on Sunday in Otukpo, the Returning Officer, Mr. John Akume, said Mark scored 384 votes to pick the party’s ticket while his only rival, Mike Onoja, withdrew from the race hours to the primaries.
Mark has represented the Benue South Senatorial District of the state at the senate for since 1999.
Also, Ekweremadu was returned unopposed with 294 votes cast by delegates from all the five local government areas in the senatorial zone.
The Deputy Senate President who expressed appreciation to the people also announced the decision of the PDP leaders in the state to throw their support behind Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, as the consensus PDP candidate in Monday’s gubernatorial primaries.
Similarly, Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Abdul Ningi, was also returned on Sunday as PDP candidate for Bauchi Central Senatorial District.
Ningi who won election into the senate in 2011, had been in the House of Representatives since 1999 and was the Leader of the House from 2003 to 2007.
However, the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, was not that lucky as he lost his bid to return to the Senate for a fourth term in the Saturday primaries.
Ndoma-Egba was defeated by Hon. John Owan Enoh who polled 217 votes against 37 at the PDP primaries.
Enoh, who represents Obubra/Etung Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, is the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee.
The third aspirant in the contest, Mr. Mark Egbe, scored 20 votes.
The Returning Officer, Uko Enaku, said that 376 accredited delegates voted in the primary while two votes were declared invalid in the election which he described as “transparent and free.’’
