In what could be described as a mixed blessing, many political aspirants across the country are already proclaiming victory, having scaled the first hurdle of clinching their parties' tickets to contest in the April polls, just as the political careers of many others may have suffered an eclipse due to their inability to win their parties' nomination.
Among the lucky winners who have emerged so far include Senate President, David Mark, who for the fourth time secured the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial district Benue South as he defeated his arch rival and former comrade-at-arms, Brig. General Lawrence Onoja (rtd).
Mark polled 1680 delegate votes against Onoja's 317 at the last National Assembly primaries of the party held at the Otukpo Township stadium over the weekend.
In Benue North-East Zone, incumbent Senator Joseph Akaagerger failed in his bid to return back to Senate as he was beaten in the race by former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Barnabas Gemade who polled 457 votes against his closest rival, Akaagerger with 446 votes leaving Matthias Byuan and Jack Gyado with 429 and 169 respectively.
Professor Orkuma Ugba yesterday also picked the nomination form to contest the governorship election on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Benue state, thus he put to end months of speculation on whether ACN would field a candidate to challenge the incumbent Governor Gabriel Suswam.
This is even as former Benue governor, George Akume is set to pick Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) nomination form to contest the Benue-North West Senatorial District seat, having earlier withdrawn from the race.
Mark, Gemade, Makarfi, Nenadi, Danjuma, Adamu others get PDP tickets (http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/politics/24161.html)