Suleiman Asonya Adokwe (born 15 February 1954) was elected Senator for the Nasarawa South constituency of

Nasarawa State Nasarawa State is a state in the North Central region of Nigeria, bordered to the east by the states of Taraba and Plateau, to the north by Kaduna State, to the south by the states of Kogi and Benue, and to the west by the Federal Capital Ter ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, taking office on 29 May 2007. He is a member of the

People's Democratic Party People's Democratic Party or ''variant thereof'', could refer to: * People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan *People's Democratic Party (Belize) *People's Democratic Party (Bhutan) * People's Democratic Party (Chile) *People's Democratic Party (Dom ...

(PDP). He is ethnically a member of the Alago nation, an Idomoid ethnic group.

Background

Adokwe earned a bachelor's degree in sociology, master's degree in labour studies and bachelor's degree in law, and is a barrister at law. He worked for the Nasarawa State civil service from 1979 to 1999, rising to the rank of permanent secretary, and was Nasarawa State Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs from 2003 to 2006.

Senate

After taking his seat in Senate in May 2007, he was appointed to committees on Senate Services, Security & Intelligence, Navy, National Planning, Downstream Petroleum and Capital Markets. In a mid-term evaluation of Senators in May 2009, ThisDay said that he had not sponsored any bills but was surprisingly brilliant on the floor. Adokwe is a supporter of labor unions, which he has said can offer constructive criticism of government, as their leaders avoid corruption and support democracy in the unions. Adokwe ran for reelection as Senator for Nasarawa South on the PDP platform in the April 2011 elections. He was elected, winning 108,844 votes against 103,320 votes for Tanko Wambai of the

Congress for Progressive Change The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) was a political party founded in Nigeria in 2009 in preparation for the April 2011 elections. It was the 63rd political party to be founded in the country. In February 2013, the party merged with the ...

(CPC). Wambai said he would challenge the result. Adokwe contested for a third term in the 2015 Nasarawa South senatorial election on the platform of the PDP and lost the election to Arc Salihu H. Egyebola of the APC who polled 95,781 votes against Adokwe's 91,760 votes. Following the outcome of the elections, Adokwe went to the election petition tribunal sitting in Lafia Nasarawa State to challenge the victory of Arc Egyebola. On 12 October 2015 the tribunal dismissed Adokwe's petition for lack of merit. Dissatisfied by the ruling, Adokwe then headed to the court of appeal in Markurdi Benue state, the appeal court later affirmed the electoral victory of senator Adokwe. The court then ordered INEC to return senator Adokwe as the duly elected senator representing Nasarawa South senatorial district.

References

Living people 1954 births Peoples Democratic Party members of the Senate (Nigeria) People from Nasarawa State 21st-century Nigerian politicians Peoples Democratic Party (Nigeria) politicians {{Nigeria-politician-stub