From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi
Elders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue North East senatorial district yesterday purchased and handed over the expression of interest as well as nomination forms to Governor Gabriel Suswam to contest the seat.
Handing over the form to the governor at the banquet hall of Government House Makurdi, Ugbah Uye a frontline politician in the state who is in his eighties, said that the elders resorted to the Tiv culture of picking their representative due to the leadership qualities the governor has exhibited in the last fifteen years of his political career.
Earlier, spokesman of the party elders forum from the senatorial district, Atoza Ihindan, said that the elders decided to pool their meager resources together to obtain the forms as mark of respect and request for Governor Suswam to represent the area in the upper chamber of the national assembly in 2015.
In his response, Governor Suswam, who expressed appreciation to the elders, noted that the position of the elders replicated the old culture of Tiv nation of selecting their representatives.
Suswam who recalled that during the first republic, the famous late Joseph Tarka was picked by elders at the age of 25 to represent the Tiv nation as a senator, said that the development if sustained, will surely engender unity among the people.
