Senators Who May Not Return In 2015

With just a few days to the nomination of candidates of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the National Assembly election in 2015, it has become apparent that many senators will not make it back to the Red Chamber.
Reason: Governors of the states from where the affected senators hail are either heading for the Senate to replace them or have anointed others to take over.

Moreover, not only did most of the senators with governorship ambitions not obtain nomination forms for the Senate, their governorship desires were truncated by the governors who already had preferred successors.
Senators likely to be affected by this two-pronged challenge, according to findings, are Aloysius Akpan Etok, chairman, Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service (Akwa Ibom North-West); Magery Chuba Okadigbo (Anambra North); Basheer Garba Mohammed (Kano Central); Barnabas Gemade, chairman, Senate Committee on National Planning (Benue North-East); Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, chairman, Senate Committee on Health (Delta North); Chris Nwankwo (Ebonyi North); James Ebiowou Manager, chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta (Delta South), and Paulinus Igwe Nwagu, chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs (Ebonyi North).
Other than the Senate president, only a handful can boast of coming back to the red chambers after May next year.
The situation is the same in most of the states. While in some cases, it is the governor that is seeking to displace them, such as Benue State governor Gabriel Suswam, that of Abia Theodore Orji, and Sullivan Chime of Enugu, among others, there are other cases where the governors simply think it is time to give other persons a chance to occupy the seat as is in the case of Bayelsa State.
Senate-bound governors in 2015
The deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, has a battle ahead of him if he wishes to retain his seat. His governor, Sullivan Chime, has his eyes on the seat and as the head of the PDP in the state, he is not likely to allow Ekweremadu to scale through the primaries.
In the case of Senate leader Victor Ndoma-Egba, Cross River governor Liyel Imoke does not seek to take his seat, but wants House chairman on Appropriation Hon John Enoh to take over from him in 2015.
In Akwa Ibom, Governor Godswill Akpabio and Senator Aloysius Etok are at each other’s throats. The governor has made no pretences that he is gunning for Etok’s job in the coming elections.
In Delta State, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan has also declared his intention to become a senator in 2014, thus jeopardising the ambition of Senator James Manager to return to the upper chamber.
In Niger, Governor Mua’zu Babangida Aliyu has declared his intention to run for the Niger-East senatorial zone next year. He will be contesting against Shem Zagbayi who just got elected in August to replace the deceased Senator Dahiru Awaisu Kuta.
Bauchi State governor Isa Yuguda is also reported to be nursing a senatorial ambition. He will be seeking to supplant Senator Adamu Gumba from the Bauchi South senatorial seat if his plan sails through.
Senator Gyang Pwajok’s return to the Senate is unlikely as Governor Jonah Jang has targeted his seat at the Senate. But Pwajok looks to benefit from this happenstance as Governor Jang has endorsed him as a possible successor. For the duo, it may just be a swap of positions.
In Abia, Governor Theodore Orji is seeking to replace Senator Nkechi Nwogu. Nwogu is also aiming higher as she is in the race to succeed Orji even though it has been rumoured that the governor has endorsed another aspirant as successor.
In Sokoto State, Governor Aliyu Wamakko of the APC is poised to replace Senator Muhammad Maccido (PDP) to represent the Sokoto Central Senatorial District.

Other factors that may stop senators from returning
Indications from happenings in states show that at least 60-75 of the 109 senators will have to find some other jobs outside the National Assembly in 2015.
This number includes those not returning because their governors have worked against them, those seeking governorship tickets of their parties and those ruled out by the power permutations such as zoning and other interests.
Senate deputy leader Abdul Ningi as well as deputy minority leader, Ganiyu Solomon, have opted out of the senatorial race for the governorship seats of Bauchi and Lagos States respectively.
Others who will not return to the Senate because of their governorship ambitions are: Abubakar Yar’Adua (Katsina), Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia), Gyang Pwajok (Plateau), Helen Esuene (Akwa Ibom), Nkechi Nwogu (Abia), Ayoade Adeseun (Oyo), Ayogu Eze (Enugu), Umar Tambuwal (Sokoto), Magnus Abe (Rivers), Chris Anyanwu (Imo), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Simon Ajibola (Kwara), Paulinus Nwagu (Ebonyi) and Victor Lar (Plateau).
Others are Solomon Ewuga (Nasarawa), Isa Galaudi (Kebbi), Muhammad Magoro (Kebbi), Aisha Alhassan (Taraba), Ibrahim Musa (Niger), Adamu Gumba (Bauchi) and Babayo Garba (Bauchi).
Ironically, the incumbent governors are against virtually all the senators succeeding them, except in the case of Pwajok where the Plateau State governor Jonah Jang is disposed to his former Chief of Staff (Pwajok) taking over from him despite opposition from stakeholders in the state.
However, Senator Abe’s ambition has been truncated on the platform of the APC as Hon Dakuku Peterside has been nominated as the flag-bearer of the party for Rivers State governorship.
At present, the Senate houses 10 former governors: George Akume (Benue Zone B), Chris Ngige (Anambra Central), Mohammed Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central), Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna North), Abubakar Saraki (Kwara Central), Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa West), Joshua Dariye (Plateau Central), Bukar Abba Ibrahim (Yobe East), and Mohammed Shaaba Lafiagi (Kwara North).

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At the time this picture was taken, 7 elderly men above 60years were being detained for three days as witnesses not suspects to case. Today would make it six days.

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Heart touching story of a widow who was severely beaten, stabbed and thrown of her matrimonial home

Alhaja Adejoke Orenaike, a widow at 36, was at the center of the whole issue in a polygamous home. Eight days after her husband died, her co-wife and step son sent her out of her matrimonial home. As if that was not enough, her sister in-law attacked her with a knife.She managed to shove her off and she ran out of the house with her 8-year-old daughter who was screaming for help. According to her, all her husband estates, properties, chains of businesses have been seized by her step son who has also threatened to kill her if she lay claim to any property.Adejoke narrated her story to Saturday Vanguard:“My husband died on the 5th of May, 2013 after a protracted illness. Before his death, there were insinuations and revelations, according to my husband that my co-wife was plotting to kill him. My husband asked her but she denied. But after his death, events began to unfold which gave credence to the earlier suspicion. On the 8th day prayer rite, two members of the family came to the house with some hoodlums and sent me and my daughter out of the house. I was severely beaten and stabbed with a kitchen knife when I visited my husband’s house to celebrate the Muslim festival, Ileya.”“I had sent my daughter on an errand and on her way back,when one of them began to rain curses on her I stepped out to know what was happening.

As if they were waiting for me to step out, they gave me the beating of my life. It got to a point that my child had to run out to seek assistance when my husband’s fellow wife brought out knife and stabbed me around my buttocks and wounded me in the mouth.
“One of the them thereafter threatened to burn the house if we did not leave the house at that point. So, I ran out of the house and he did not allow me take anything, not even a pin. This was the same house I was living with my husband before his demise. This destablised my business and my daughter’s education to a large extent.
“I mourned my husband for four months and 11days not in my matrimonial home but where I was squatting after they
sent me and my daughter out of the house, just eight days after the death of my husband. It was during this time that I gathered that one of the members of the family had sold the house I was living with my husband. He packed my belongings to my shop which was built in front of the house with some of my valuables still missing. “However, when I discovered some of my belongings were missing, I informed some elders from my husband’s family. They asked him but he denied taking them. The elders told me to exercise patience, saying that they would resolve the matter one year after my husband’s death. They even asked him why he sold the house but he told them that it was not their business.“Right now, I cannot access any property of my husband. It is so with his business. He used to have three bank accounts with First Bank, Diamond and Union banks. His brother has taken over everything including cash mostly in foreign currencies.
“Along the line, my husband’s relatives tried their best to settle the bickering but one of my step sons refused bluntly. He thereafter threatened to kill me or kidnap my daughter. He said I could share his father’s property with them (himself and his other siblings) just because I have a female child for his late father.Adejoke agreed that her husband’s inability to prepare a Will before his death caused this bickering. She stated that the head of the family had warned that sharing of property should wait until after a year but he chose to have his way.

“They said sharing of my husband’s property should wait till after a year but he declined and chose to sell my husband’s property
“One of them has threatened to kill me and my child over my husband’s property. My shop has been closed down since the death of my husband for more than a year now. I have petitioned the commissioner of police and our case has been transferred to Panti. The Police force from Panti searched his house and my international passport and the knife with which his wife used to stab me were found.Adejoke stated that until the death of their husband, she had a cordial relationship with her co-wife, and her step sons.

“We had a cordial relationship before the death of my husband. In fact we were living together for some time until my husband bought the house which has now been sold. My husband and I left the house when he took ill following the allegation of plotting to kill him through diabolical means. People advised my husband to leave the house and I left with him. My husband and I traveled twice to India for medical attention and on each occasion, neither my co-wife, nor the son who sold the property cared to go with him to India or to know how he was faring.”“The royal father is the head of the family and he was the one who trained my husband. He was the one who said we should wait till a year after my husband’s death. When Saturday Vanguard contacted him, the royal father also declined comment but promised to get back to us soon.She maintained that several truce attempts called by the head of the family, HRM Bola Rahimi, Oba Alarige of Ibi-Ade, Ijebu water side, did not work.
Late Sikiru Orenaike was a business man with several properties in Lagos and London. In a letter purportedly written by the deceased while receiving treatment in India, he directed that his properties be shared among his children including Mariam, the 8-year-old daughter and his two wives and other members of the family.

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