Senate President David Mark begs APC, Saraki may emerge

With the release of the results of National Assembly
elections held last Saturday by the INEC, indications
have emerged that the South East Geo-Political Zone
may have lost the opportunity to produce the next
Senate President of Nigeria.
The Zone did not vote for any candidate of the APC in
the last election, thereby shutting out itself in the
reckoning for such a post.
From the results posted by the INEC, the South East
neither returned any of its APC senators nor voted for
any new candidate to emerge on the platform of
the APC.
Consequently, Senate President David Mark is said to
be begging APC to give him the position.
It was learnt that the non-availability of any ranking
APC Senator from the region to take the slot of Senate
President might compel APC to zone the slot to the
North Central, where David Mark hails from.
Mark would have emerged the best choice given his
rich background and experience, his membership of
the PDP, which will now be in the minority in the next
Senate, knocks him out of the reckoning for the post.
APC has won no fewer than 65 seats in the last NASS
election pushing PDP with 44 Senators to the second
position in the upper legislative chambers.
But there was unconfirmed report on Wednesday that
Mark was being pressured by political interests to
defect to the APC after the inauguration of the
National Assembly in order to retain his post.
But it is not possible for any Senator to decamp to any
other party until after being sworn in.
A source told Vanguard: “The truth of the matter is
that you cannot decamp to any party after election
until you are sworn in. It is not an issue now and I
don’t think that anybody should contemplate that at all
and even the opposition party will not even welcome
you.
No way for Mark — APC chieftain
But an APC chieftain has said that it was not possible
to concede the Senate Presidency to Benue State after
it had occupied the post for eight years through David
Mark.
The official said that there was no way APC would
accept Mark as its Senate President since there were
many qualified Senators from other states in the North
Central to occupy the post.
It was learnt that given the absence of any ranking
APC Senator from the South East or South South, the
APC would still retain the Senate Presidency in the
North Central but pick from another state.
Kwara State Senator, Dr. Bukola Saraki, is being
considered for the top post. But if APC keeps the post
in Benue, the Senate Minority Leader, George Akume,
is likely to emerge as the Senate President.