BY TORDUE SALEM
ABUJA—The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Rep. Muhammed Ali Ndume, has said not even his governor, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, could stop his ambition to represent the people of Southern Borno in the senate in 2011.

The opposition leader in the House, who has been in a long battle with the governor, two weeks ago dumped the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, to pick a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, ticket to contest for a senatorial seat in his state.

He told Vanguard that he remained unruffled, despite his governor anointing somebody else to contest the same seat.
“The governor is in charge of the state and I am just a member of the House of Representatives. He is contesting for Borno Central senatorial seat and I am coming for Borno South, but many people have been saying that the governor does not like me and does not want me to come to Senate. But I am a strong believer that power belongs to God and he gives it to whoever he wants at the time he chooses and not anybody. I believe if God says I should be a senator, no human being can stop it,” he affirmed.

The senatorial aspirant said his opponent’s anointing by the overnor not withstanding, he would still trounced the All Nigeria Peoples Party candidate.

“It is true there have been these allegations all over the place.  In fact, she (my opponent) has also claimed that she is the governor’s candidate. But if she claims to be the governor’s candidate, I can claim rightly to be the people’s candidate. So, we have the people’s candidate against the governor’s candidate and we will wait for the outcome”.

“I have been in the House of Representatives for two terms and she has been in the House of Assembly for only two years. And our people will choose between us.

“Let me say it clearly that even now that I am in the House, people from outside my constituency in the state still come to me to present their problems like issues that relate to the local governments. So, I am kind of carrying the Senatorial load as a member of the House.

That is why the people decided that I should come over to the Senate and take over my rightful position and represent them.
“Let me give you an example, we have problem of water in the state particularly in Biu, where you have two years of consecutive out break of cholera.

So, I had to liaised with the Biu Emirate Development Association and Biu Forum and I contributed my drilling rig (because I have a company before I came to the House) to drill boreholes to complement government efforts in providing portable water for the people. And then I have a free eye test and treatment programme, which I do in conjunction with the Federation of Islamic Medical Association (FIMA) based abroad”, he said.