Senate presidency should be zoned to North East – Group

Leader of the forum, Elisha Cliff Ishaku, who made this known at the weekend, said the region deserves an influential voice that can promote positive impact and rebuild the destruction caused by the insurgents.
He said the region single-handedly produced the second largest number of votes that aided the APC to grab victory, adding that despite the fear of attack by the Boko Haram, bombs flying all over and loss of lives and properties in the region on the election day, which left several people dead, the people left their dead on election day to vote for a leader they believe in and bury them after the election.
“From when I can remember, the leadership of the Senate when zoned to the North has always been taken by the North Central. I don’t think we are asking for too much, look at the recent devastations in the North East, we have lost a lot to the insurgencies and we are still losing, our children are being kidnapped in hundreds, our wives and women molested, brothers and husbands killed, families without their homes, the destruction is massive.”
“Can you imagine being called an internally displaced person in your own country, living in refugee camps, surviving on the generosity of others, and the future of our children unknown, presently they are living in other states because of security concerns.”   Secretary of the group, Uchenna Rowland Onyeizu, noted that such devastations can only be repaired if someone from the region is made the Senate president.
He explained that the region needs a person who can institutionalise change and sustain it.
The group said John Wash Pam who was Deputy Senate President; Iyorchia Ayu, Senate President; Ameh Ebute, Senate President; Haruna Abubakar, Deputy Senate President; Ibrahim Mantu, Deputy Senate President and David Mark  Senate President, were all from  the North Central zone.  The group pleaded with the leadership of APC to zone this position to the North East, saying it has credible and competent persons to fill the position.
 It called on the North Central, which has been occupying  the seats, to demonstrate equity and fairness and support a shift to the North East.