NIGERIAN VOTERS EJECT OVER 60 SENATORS AND 151 REPRESENTATIVES FROM NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

No fewer than 64 serving senators and 151 members of the House of Representatives will not be in the 9th National Assembly in June when it will be inaugurated. So far, only 45 senators and about 209 members have managed to win re-election to the federal legislature.

The list of the top election losers include:

BUKOLA SARAKI, PDP.

The former two-term Governor of Kwara State, 2003-2011 and incumbent Senate President lost to Ibrahim Oloriegbe of the All progressive Congress, APC in the race to represent Kwara Central at Senate. Mr Saraki, a medical doctor, who contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after joining Kwara politics in 2003 by riding on his father’s profile, lost to another medical doctor, Ibrahim Oloriegbe of the All Progressive Party (APC). Mr Oloriegbe of the APC polled 123, 828 to beat Saraki of the PDP who scored 68, 994.

ABIODUN OLUJIMI, PDP, Ekiti-South:

The incumbent Senate’s Minority Leader lost her seat to Dayo Adeyeye of the APC. From her debut as the National Publicity Secretary of the defunct NCPN, she moved to the Alliance for Democracy where she emerged its National Publicity Secretary. In 2002, she joined the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP from where she was appointed Special Assistant, to the Governor of Ekiti State. After a stint, subsequently as member, Federal House of Representatives, she emerged as the Deputy Governor of Ekiti State during Ayo Fayose’s first emergence as Governor in 2005. In 2015, she contested and won the elections for Senator representing Ekiti South Senatorial zone as a member of the PDP.

SHEHU SANI, PRP, Kaduna Central:

Formerly of the APC, Sani defected to the PRP after the primaries of the APC failed to return him as its nominee. He lost to Uba Sani of the APC. His defeat was a culmination of a public falling out with the Governor of Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai, a feud that eventually led to the ecit of the Senator from the APC .Shehu Sani scored a paltry 11,799. He has already called for the cancellation of the election, complaining that the exercise was characterised by irregularities and massive rigging. On September 4, 2015, he became the first and only Nigerian Senator to declare his assets publicly. He would be remember for his flowery tweets on Twitter.

GODSWILL AKPABIO, APC, Akwa Ibom North-West District:

Former Governor of Akwa Ibom and Senate’s Minority leader lost his bid to return to the Senate on the platform of the APC after defecting from the PDP. Chris Ekpenyong of the PDP who scored 118,215 votes as against the 83,158 scored by Akpabio was declared as Senator-Elect three days after the elections by the Returning Officer designated for the raceby the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Peter Oban.   Akpabio was Governor of Akwa Ibom between 2007 and and 2015. In 2013, he was elected Chairman of the PDP Governor’s Forum and in 2015 became elected as a member of the Nigerian Senate, where he wasted no time in assuming the coveted position of the Minority Leader in the Chambers representing the PDP, the erstwhile ruling party who lost in that year’s geenral elections to the APC. However, in 2018, Akpabio resigned as Minority Leader, after defecting to the ruling APC where he was touted as a factor to help the APC increase its penetration among voters in the Southern axis of Nigeria. 

MONSURAT SUNMONU, ADC, Oyo Central Senatorial District:

Monsurat, first female speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly and Chair of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee lost her seat to Teslim Folarin of the APC.

BINTA GARBA, APC, Adamawa North Senatorial District:

Binta, the only female member of the 8th Senate electing from all of the 19 States in the north of Nigeria, lost her seat to Ishaku Abbo of the PDP.  She scored 63, 219 votes while her opponent got 79, 37 votes. Binta is also the first female State Chairperson of a registered major political party in Nigeria having served as the Chairman, APC, Adamawa State. She was also a three-time former member, Federal House of Representatives serving three tenures, from 1999 to 2011

MAO OHUABUNWA, PDP, Abia North:

In 2015, he defeated former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor twice (during the general election, and after the cancellation of that result, the scheduled re-run election) to represent the district in the 8th Senate. However, his rival had the upper hand in the 2018 elections.

ANDY UBA, Anambra North:

In what was a contest of three ‘Ubas’ – involving Andy Uba’s younger brother (Chris Uba) and businessman proprietor of Capital Oil, Ifeanyi Uba – the two sibling Ubas lost polling a combined figure (13,245 + 62,462) lower than that of the businessman (87,081). Andy Uba, a former domestic aide to President Olusegun Obasanjo has been elected twice, 2011 and 2015, to the Nigerian Senate under the platform of the PDP. He contested the 2018 election as a member of the APC.

GEORGE AKUME, APC, Benue North West:

Akume, a two-time Governor of Benue State (1999- 2007) was first elected to the Senate under the platform of the PDP after his stint as Governor. In 2011, he got re-elected as a member of the ACN becoming the Minority Leader of the Senate, 2011 – 2015. Emmanuel Orker Jev of the PDP scored 157,726 to defeat Akume who polled 115,422 votes.

Meanwhile, at least three term-limited sitting or past Governors lost their bids to become elected Senators of Nigeria. Those include:

OLUSEGUN MIMIKO, ZLP

immediate past Governor of Ondo State: His total votes of 56,628 as candidate of the Zenith Labour Party, ZLP, was only enough to claim the third place  behind the incumbent, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, APC who came second with 58,092 and Ayo Akinyelure, PDP who polled 67,994 to claim victory as Senator-Elect, Ondo Central Senatorial District. A two Governor of Ondo State, Mimiko entered the campaign season as the presidential candidate of ZLP only to declare for a Senatorial run a few days before the campaign was formally opened.

ABIOLA AJIMOBI, APC:

The incumbent Governor of Oyo State saw his bid to join the Red Chambers come up short as he lost to Kola Balogun of the PDP who scored 105,720 votes to overwhelm Ajimobi’s 92,217. Indeed, of the nine Local Government Areas making up the Senatorial district, the incumbent Governor only managed to win three of them with the remaining six falling to his victorious opponent. Instructively, his State also fell to the PDP in the presidential elections. Ajimobi’s bid was to return to a chamber whose membership he enjoyed 2003 – 2007 before opting to run for the office of the Governor of Oyo State. He lost the bid as a member of the ANPP but made a successful feat of it in 2011: a seat he won and kept successfully for two terms terms, a combined total of 8 years (2011 – 2019).

IBRAHIM DANKWABO, PDP.

Dankwambo would not be Gombe North’s  Senator in the 9th Assembly as he lost  his bid to Sa’idu Alkali who polled 152,546 to upstage the 88,016 voted registered by the incumbent term-limited Governor. Dankwambo rising star which saw the former staff of the Central bank of Nigeria rise to become Accountant General of Gombe State and then Accountant-General of the Federation from where he catapulted into the Office of Governor of Gombe State suffered its second hiccough after having his bid as nominee of the PDP for the presidential elections rejected.