The Senator elect for Anambra Central senatorial
district, Hon Uche Ekwunife has rebuffed
pressures being mounted on her by elders and
some political stake holders in the District to
renounce her mandate for Senator Chris Ngige
who is also from the district. Ekwunife, who won
the senatorial seat in the March 28, 2015 National
Assembly election on the platform of the Peoples
Democratic Party( PDP), by defeating Victor Umeh
of the All Progressives Grand Alliance ( APGA) and
Chris Ngige of the All Progressives Congress
( APC), has since been under pressure to renounce
the mandate for Ngige, for the purposes of a
South Easterner clinching the position of Senate
President in the coming 8th Senate. Fielding
questions from journalists yesterday in Abuja at
the just ended 4- day induction course held for
federal lawmakers elect, for the 8th National
Assembly, Ekwunife confirmed the pressures but
categorically said that she would never succumb
to that . She said: “Yes, there has been immense
pressure from various quarters in the Anambra
central senatorial zone and by extension,
Anambra State, on me to renounce the popular
mandate given to me by the people of the
senatorial district for somebody ( Ngige) I
defeated flatly for reasons of power sharing they
are not even sure of.
“Even if they are sure of whatever
position they want the person they are
pressurising me to step down for, I will
never take that from them because the
mandate as far as I am concerned is far,
far bigger than being sacrificed on the
altar of power sharing.”
Pressures mounted on Ekwunife in this regard,
arose out of the political reality that non of the 15
senators elected from the South East for the
coming 8th Senate, is a member of the APC, the
party whose senators-elect, are expected to form
the leadership of the Senate , having won 60 out of
the available 109 seats . The calculations of those
who mounted pressures on Ekwunife to renounce
her mandate for Ngige were premised on Ngige
being an APC senator already and with ranking
status he would have attained in the senate if
allowed to return, would have been in the best
position to clinch the position of Senate President,
being from the zone the position was originally
zoned to by the party before the general election,
the outcome of which produced no single senator
from the area on the platform of APC. It would be
recalled that even the South South Geo- political
zone where the party would have considered for
the position after the South East, the only senator
elect on the platform of APC from the zone is a
first timer, a development that is making the party
to be looking at the directions if North Central or
North East Geo- political zones since North West
and South West Geo- political zones already have
the President elect and Vice President elect
respectively.

http://madailygist.com/senate-presidency-i-wont-step-down-for-ngige-ekwunife-read-more/

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