At least five principal officers of the Peoples Democratic Party at the Senate and the House of Representatives will not be returning to the 10th National Assembly.
Some of the senior lawmakers lost their seats to newcomers in the February 25 legislative elections.
One of them is Philip Aduda, third-term lawmaker and Minority Leader of the Senate, who was defeated by the candidate of the Labour Party, Ireti Kingibe. Ireti scored a total of 202,175 votes, leaving a wide margin of votes as Aduda polled 100,544 votes.
In the House of Representatives, the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, who was first elected to represent Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency in 2007 lost his fifth term bid to Ngozi Okolie of the LP. Elumelu polled 33,456 votes, while the LP candidate polled 53,879 votes.
Also, the Minority Whip, Gideon Gwani lost his seat to Donatus Mathew of the Labour Party. Gwani, who represents Kaura Federal Constituency of Kaduna State and has been in the House of Representatives since 2003, lost to Mathew, who polled 10,508 votes as against his 10,297 votes.
The Deputy Minority Whip, Adesegun Adekoya (PDP, Ogun), is also among the lawmakers from the minority caucus that failed to secure a return to parliament, as his party suffered a defeat in the hands of the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Representing Ijebu North, Ijebu East and Ogun Waterside federal constituency at the National Assembly, Adekoya polled 25,450 votes while the APC candidate, Adegbesan Joseph, garnered 35,708 votes.
Among the prominent senators who lost their elections to the Labour Party were Uche Ekwenife and Stella Oduah. Ekwunife was defeated by Victor Umeh of LP, who clinched the Anambra South seat while Oduah, a former aviation minister and two-term senator lost the Anambra North senatorial seat to Tony Nwoye.
