The battle raging between Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State and Senator Barnabas Gemade over the ticket to represent the people of Benue South-east senatorial district continued unabated on Sunday with Suswam declaring that serving senators were blackmailing President Goodluck Jonathan in their desperate bid to secure automatic tickets back to the National Assembly in 2015.
This came as the senator representing Kogi Central senatorial district in the National Assembly, Senator Nurudden Abatemi-Uman, said the report that President Jonathan had promised automatic senatorial tickets to 40 incumbent senators of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was false.
According to THISDAY Newspapers, Suswam, who reacted to media reports that the president had conceded automatic tickets to the serving PDP senators ahead of the 2015 elections, said his senatorial aspiration had been ordained by God and would not be stopped by anybody.
He spoke at Agbeede Gaav in Konshisha Local Government Area of the state, the home town of Senator Barnabas Gemade, where his childhood friend, Mr. Julius Atorough, built blocks of classrooms for his community and also donated seven branded Sport Utility Vehicle SUV’s cars to his campaign organisation.
Suswam noted that “elections into the senate are won through the ballot and not by any arrangement, senators should stop blackmailing the president and seek their reelection through the ballot box.
On the assertion that returning the PDP senators would better enhance the act of law making, the governor said he had better experience as a federal lawmaker representing Ukum- Logo-Kastisna/Ala federal constituency, between 1999 and 2007.
“The fact of the matter is that at the end of the day, our constituents are in the better position to determined weather anyone had performed well and deserved to continue in office and not through blackmail as it is being done at the moment.”
