About 50 members of the Upper Legislative chamber, The Senate in the seventh National Assembly have lost their bids to secure return tickets to the Senate from their respective political parties.
This development, viewed as unhealthy for legislative growth, will witness far less than half of the incumbent 109 senators returning to the Senate in the eighth National Assembly as some of the 60 seeking to return to the chamber will still lose at the National Assembly election.
Findings from the list of eligible candidates released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) last week, showed that only about 60 senators obtained tickets to contest the forthcoming April 14 senatorial elections.
However, five other senators picked gubernatorial tickets on the platforms of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) respectively. They are Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi Central, APC), Ifeanyi Okowa (PDP), Aisha Alhassan (Taraba North, APC), Pwajok Gyang (Plateau North, PDP), Bindow Jubrilla (Adamawa North, APC) and Benedict Ayade (Cross River North).
The most bizarre episode, however, took place in Akwa Ibom and Edo States where the list released by INEC showed that none of the six senators from both states will return to the Senate this year.
The affected senators are the eloquent Senator Ita Enang (Akwa Ibom North-east), Alloysius Etok (Akwa Ibom North-west) and Helen Esuene (Akwa Ibom South).
Esuene was among 22 aggrieved governorship aspirants who defected to APC in the state penultimate week.
The 22 Akwa Ibom aspirants predicated their action on alleged denial by Governor Godswill Akpabio to provide level playing for all the aspirants.
In the same vein, incumbent senators from Edo State who will not return to the Senate in June are Odion Ugbesia (Edo Central), Ehigie Uzamere (Edo South) and Domingo Obende (Edo North).
While Ugbesia (PDP) and Obende (APC) lost at their respective parties’ primaries, Uzamere on his party did not seek any return ticket having defected to PDP from APC last year
Also in Bayelsa, two of the three senators lost return bids to the Senate. They are Heinekken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa West) and Clever Ikisikpo (Bayelsa East). Only Emmanuel Paulker (Bayelsa Central) rode on the influence of President Goodluck Jonathan to secure the ticket of PDP in his senatorial district.
Nevertheless, two notable senators who lost return bids to the Senate are Uche Chukwumerije (Abia North) and Victor Ndoma-Egba. Both men who have been in the Senate since 2003 fought tooth and nail to regain return tickets but were schemed out by intrigues and power play orchestrated by their state governors.
Others who were forced out of PDP to pick other parties’ tickets were formal National Chairman of PDP, Senator Barnabas Gemade (now in APC), Senator Bassey Otu (now in Labour Party) and Senator Nurudeen-Abatemi now in Peoples Progressives Alliance (PPA) and Tutare Umar (Taraba Central) now in Social Democratic Party (SDP), among others.
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