Northern senators endorse Mark

BY BEN AGANDE & INALEGWU SHAIBU

ABUJA-The Northern Senators Forum,NSF, yesterday, endorsed Senator David Mark for the Senate Presidency with a warning to Governor Danjuma Goje that he would be humilated if he dared to contest against Mark.

The endorsement of Mark was conveyed at a briefing by the executive members of NSF in the National Assembly Complex in Abuja, yesterday.

More support also came for Mark, yesterday, from Senator-elect Ifeanyi Okowa, who, yesterday, said that the combination of Mark and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, remained the best to guide the Senate in the next four years.

Okowa spoke to Vanguard after collecting his certificate of return during which he affirmed that there was no support for Goje among his first- term colleagues entering the Senate.

Addressing Senate correspondents, NSF Chairman, Senator Dahiru Umaru, said Mark had brought stability and respect to the Senate in the last four years and should, therefore, be allowed to continue.

In an apparent reference to the role of money in Nigerian politics, the Northern senators  said they could not be bought, saying any candidate who come out against Mark would be ‘humiliated’.

Though it is speculated that the outgoing governor of Gombe State and Senator-elect, Goje, had ambition to run for the senate presidency he is, however, yet to declare publicly.Umaru, alongside other members of the forum, told journalists that they had decided to throw their weight behind Mark and his deputy, Ekweremadu,  for another term because of the stability, maturity and rare qualities they had exhibited in the last four years.

According to the chairman of the forum, the ability of Mark to hold the country together with the support of the senate