Oluremi Tinubu emerges as a front runner to become senate president after getting re-elected

SENATOR Oluremi Tinubu is being touted as one of the prime candidate to become the next senate president if her All Progressives Congress (APC) emerges as the largest party in the National Assembly after she was returned as the lawmaker representing Lagos Central Senatorial District.

Highly respected, Senator Tinubu, 58, the wife of the APC national leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was first elected a senator in 2011 and was returned to office in 2015. Now, elected for a third term, she is one of the highest ranking APC senators in the National Assembly and with incumbent senate president Senator Bukola Saraki losing his seat in Kwara Central Senatorial District, she has become the frontrunner to replace him.

To become senate president, however, Senator Tinubu will need her party the APC to win a majority of the 109 seats in the upper chamber. She is one of only six women elected into the senate in 2015, with the others being Stella Oduah, Uche Ekwunife, Fatimat Rasaki, Rose Oko and Binta Garba.

Early this morning, Professor Oyeyemi Oyedola, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) returning officer for Lagos Central Senatorial District, declared Senator Tinubu the winner with 131,735 votes. he declared that she defeated Onitiri David of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 89,107 votes.

He added: "I, Professor Oyeyemi Elijah Oyedola, hereby certify that as the retuning officer, Lagos Central Senatorial District with the election held on 23 of February, 2019 that the election was contested among 14 candidates. I declare that Tinubu Oluremi Shade of the APC has satisfied the requirements of law and scoring the highest number of votes, hereby declared the winner and returned elected having polled 131,735 votes."

Sodiq Abubakar, Inec's electoral officer in Lagos Island, lauded the security agents for their support towards ensuring free, fair and credible election. He said that no causality was recorded during the period of the election and urged the stakeholders to keep it up.