How PDP almost claimed the senate presidency

By Omololu Ogunmade and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

In a bid to resolve the on-going crisis among the All Progressives Congress senators following the election of principal officers of the National Assembly against the wish of the ruling party, the party’s leadership is considering two major options, THISDAY has learnt.

It emerged at the weekend that APC was offering Senator Ahmed Lawan, who was the party’s preferred candidate for the position of senate president, and his group the posts of senate majority leader and deputy majority leader. In the alternative, the party considered to offer a ministerial slot to Lawan if Buhari could be persuaded.

Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, APC’s choice candidates for the posts of senate president and speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively, had on Tuesday lost to Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara, in that order. This was due to a defiant collaboration between some members of the ruling APC and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party caucus in the National Assembly.

Few APC senators loyal to Saraki and all the 49 senators of the minority Peoples Democratic Party had met on Tuesday morning at the upper chamber and elected Saraki while about 51 APC senators were said to be meeting at the International Conference Centre to try to resolve disagreements that had raged in the party. Dogara’s election followed a similar pattern.

The APC national leadership had promptly reacted by rejecting the emergence of Saraki as senate president and Dogara as House speaker and threatened to sanction the duo and their insubordinate allies. The Lawan group, the Senate Unity Forum, also threatened to challenge Saraki’s election in court.

But the party made a detour on Friday. Sources said the change of attitude was caused by the divergent positions of party leaders on the emergence of the new National Assembly leadership.

The APC leadership is trying to restore peace and unity to the party. It is trying to dissuade the Lawan group from going to court because, according to APC, if they go to court, it may deepen the rift in the party and cause a permanent damage to intraparty relations. It would also give PDP room to exploit the crisis to its own advantage by playing one faction of APC against the other, APC believes.

Besides, the ruling party feels the Senate Unity Forum’s grounds for wanting to sue were weak. The Lawan group alleged that they were denied participation in the election of the senate president. But it has been proven that members of the unity forum actually absented themselves from the inauguration session of the upper chamber that Tuesday.

President Muhammadu Buhari had sent a letter to the Clerk of the National Assembly and specifically stated that the Senate should be proclaimed at 10am on June 9. If the president wanted to change the time, he needed to have sent another letter to the Clerk of the National Assembly to notify him of the change.

One source said the ruling party was even lucky to have some of its members at the senate during the choice of the senate leadership because had Saraki and his supporters joined their colleagues at the International Conference Centre, PDP, which had all their 49 senators in attendance at the inaugural sitting, could have elected Senator David Mark as senate president.

It was gathered that Saraki got to the National Assembly at 5am that day, while some members of his group were there as early as 6am, a development that saved APC from losing the two principal positions in the Senate.

Another thing causing concern among members of the National Assembly is the deployment of policemen to shut the parliament on June 9. Many are wondering who gave the order to the Nigeria Police, because there are no indications that it was Buhari. The suspicion in some quarters is that a leader of the ruling party could have issued the directive to the police.

After the storm, APC is moving to reconcile its members. As part of the effort to restore unity to the party, the APC leadership has, in addition to holding out the olive branch to the Lawan group, also initiated other measures to soothe angry feelings among members. Saraki, too, has intensified moves to reconcile with the party.

THISDAY learnt that APC had set up a three-man committee headed by National Secretary of the party, Alhaji Mai-Mala Buni, which is tasked with reaching out to aggrieved members and recommending ways of reconciling them. A member of the group of senators that supported the election of Saraki as senate president, Senator Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West), confirmed this yesterday.

The APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, had on Friday made a U-turn from the party’s earlier rejection of Saraki and Dogara’s elections, when he said the new senate president “has been duly elected by his colleagues. We have a reality and we must live with it. We have faced greater challenges before and this, too, shall pass away.”

Odigie-Oyegun disclosed yesterday that APC had started a peace process, saying he is confident that the issues in the party would be amicably resolved in the next few days.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/apc-weighs-reconciliation-options-for-senate-leadership/211992/

Its better they settle it amicably rather than going to court, bt if they insist of going to court, they (unity forum) can't win d case. They knew they were to be at d chamber by 10am, they decided to attend unofficial meeting at ICC. Beside, Buhari has already sent in his proclamation to d clerk to declare open d 8th National Assembly by 10am dat particular day and there was never an official memo from Buhari for shift in time, so d clerk acted rightly

Okay