Ninety-eight senators-elect and 325 House of Representatives members-elect are to receive their Certificate of Returns from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) today in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
They are the ones whose elections have been concluded and declared winners in their senatorial districts by Returning Officers.
The senators-elect are from seven parties – All Progressives Congress (APC); All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); Labour Party (LP); New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP); People Democratic Party (PDP); Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Young Peoples Party (YPP).
The breakdown is as follows: APC (57), APGA (1), LP (6), NNPP (2), PDP (29), SDP (2) and YPP (1).
The House of Representatives members-elect from eight parties are as follows: APC (162), African Democratic Congress (ADC) (2), APGA (4), LP (34), NNPP (18), PDP (102), SDP (2) and YPP (1).
However, it was learnt yesterday that majority of the House of Representatives members-elect are freshers.
Eleven former governors and an incumbent state chief executive officer, a former deputy governor and one serving deputy governor, are among the senators-elect.
The former governors are: Adams Osiomhole (Edo), Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Danjuma Goje (Gombe), Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo (Gombe), Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano), Adamu Aliero (Kebbi), Gbenga Daniel (Ogun), Ibrahim Gaidam (Yobe), Idiat Adebule (Lagos, Deputy) and Ipalibo Banigo (Rivers, Deputy).
The return of former Kano State governor as Senator on the platform of the NNPP, after dumping the party after his name had been submitted by the party is generating controversy. The NNPP has insisted that the former governor is not a member of the party.
Some of the House of Representatives members-elect have either served in the Houses of Assembly or have served as members of the Green Chamber at one time or the other.
Also, the entire leadership of the Minority Caucus of the House will not be part of the 10th House of Representatives as they all lost their re-election bid.
While Deputy Minority Leader Toby Okechukwu failed to get the nomination of the PDP to contest the election, Minority Leader Ndudi Elumelu lost his seat to the LP candidate.
Minority Whip and his deputy, Gideon Gwani and Adekoya Abdulmujeed, respectively lost their seats to the LP and the APC in Kaduna and Ogun states.
Majority Whip of the House, Mohammed Tahir Monguno, will not be part of the 10th Assembly. He was elected senator representing Borno North, while his Deputy, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, lost her fifth term bid to the LP.
Of the 43 members of the House from the Southeast, only six of them are serving in the current Assembly while the remaining are new members.
Members-elect will be presented with their certificates of return at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
At the time of this report, the Commission was yet to upload the list of winners of the election on its website as promised by the Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Saturday.
While addressing Resident Electoral Commissioners, the INEC boss had announced that the APC has so far won majority seats in the National Assembly, followed by the PDP, LP and the NNPP.
He said that APC has so far won 57 seats in the Senate and 162 seats in the House of Representatives out of the 423 legislative results so far released by the commission, adding that results from 98 senatorial districts and 325 constituencies seats have so far been released.
Yakubu said:
“In last Saturday’s elections, winners have also been declared for 423 national legislative seats while supplementary elections will be held in 46 constituencies. In the Senate, 98 out of 109 seats have been declared.
“So far, seven political parties have won senatorial seats while in the House of Representatives, 325 out of 360 seats have been won by eight political parties.”
