I didn’t call for elections postponement – Mark

Reacting to a Daily Trust story of Wednesday in which he was quoted to have said “election is not on the table now”, Mark, through his spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan, said he never called for the elections to be suspended.Daily Trust had quoted Mark as having said on Tuesday during a debate on insurgency: “There is […]

Reacting to a Daily Trust story of Wednesday in which he was quoted to have said “election is not on the table now”, Mark, through his spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan, said he never called for the elections to be suspended.
Daily Trust had quoted Mark as having said on Tuesday during a debate on insurgency: “There is no question of election; it is not even on the table now. We are in a state of war.”
But Ologbondiyan’s statement yesterday said the correct quotation of what Mark said was: “Unfortunately, we are not satisfied with the way the war has been prosecuted so far. We want a better strategy and precise statement that will give direction on how we are going to prosecute this war and end it as quickly as possible. It is not a question of election because election is not even on the table now.
“I would want us in the process of looking at the prayers (of the motion) take those that will assist us to prosecute this war. I agree with all of you that we are in the state of war and what is happening now is a challenge even to our legitimacy in this chamber.”
Ologbondiyan said, “From the foregoing, it is clear that Senator Mark did NOT call and will NEVER call for the postponement of the 2015 general elections. Rather, he has emphasised the danger which Boko Haram portends to our nation and only explained that the issue before the Senate now was not election matters but how to end the Boko Haram war against Nigerians.”
Daily Trust report that the Senate President’s spokesman faulted never said Mark called for election postponement.
During the debate on the motion on the issue of insuregency on Tuesday, Deputy Senate Pesident Ike Ekweremadu also said, “If we don’t resolve the problem in the North-east, we may not have elections in 2015 because Section 180(3) of the Constitution says if the country is at war, there may not be elections. Of course, the country is at war now. Democracy is being rolled back in North-east.”