Skip to main content

Poll Shift : Mark Accuses Senator Of Blackmail

February 12, 2015

Ojudu, the All Progressives Congress senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District in the upper chamber had in a media report, not in The Punch, allegedly accused Mark of masterminding the shift of the polls.

Image

Senate President, David Mark, on Thursday descended heavily on his colleague Senator Babafemi Ojudu over the latter’s allegation that he engineered the postponement of the general elections from February 14 to March 28.

Ojudu,  the All Progressives Congress senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District in the upper chamber had in a media report, not in The Punch, allegedly accused Mark of masterminding the shift of the polls.

But Mark, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja,   described the allegation by Ojodu that he (Mark) called for the postponement of the 2015 general election as “an undignifying mischief least expected of a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The statement noted that Mark, a Peoples Democratic Party senator, representing Benue South Senatorial District,  expressed shock and disappointment at the allegation, and swore that he never called for the postponement of the elections.

The senate president also said he never attended any meeting under any guise whatsoever where the decision to postpone the election was taken.

He accused  Ojodu of attempting to ridicule his colleagues and drag the Senate into a public disrepute.

Mark said, “I have neither canvassed the postponement or deferment of 2015 election nor has my body language ever suggested that.

“I am shocked that distinguished Senator Ojudu could descend to this level of mischief and blackmail for reasons that I am yet to understand.

“How could I call for the deferment of elections? Whereas I ran for the primary election of my party, the People’s Democratic Party and was elected unopposed.

“I picked and filled the Independent National Electoral Commission forms; I had commenced a rigorous campaign that took me to the length and breadth of my senatorial district. How else could I have shown commitment to the process.

“In no unmistakable terms, when the issue of insurgency came to the floor of the Senate and a Distinguished Senator introduced the issue of election I had cautioned that the issue before the Senate had nothing to do with election and that the issue before us in the Senate was insurgency and terrorism.

“I do hope Senator Ojodu has not embarked on a voyage to re-write history to suit his clandestine intentions.

“I know these are desperate times for a lot of politicians. But it has not called for this outright mischief. Different political affiliations notwithstanding, we all have a common goal to maintain the sanctity of our peace and unity.”

Mark said, “If Senator Ojodu feels strongly about any issue, he had opportunity to make his point before his colleagues and certainly not grandstanding in the media arena.”

The senate president said he had always maintained  that elections should hold as scheduled and that he also believed that the right thing should be done.

He said, “This is not personal but in the collective interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. The country is bigger than any of us. Our unity must be held sacrosanct.

The Senate , Mark maintained, will always remain one united family held together by national interest and would always stand together  to defend national unity.