Skip to main content

Saraki holds peace talks with aggrieved Senators


Senate President Bukola Saraki
Senate President Bukola Saraki


Senate President Bukola Saraki has started reaching out to the All Peoples Congress leadership and colleagues opposed to his emergence as the head of the National Assembly.
A senator loyal to him, Rafiu Ibrahim, made this known in Abuja on Sunday just as The PUNCH learnt that the APC leadership decided to soft-pedal on its initial opposition to the outcomes of the National Assembly leadership elections in order to stave off   rebellion by its lawmakers.
Ibrahim said, “We are currently meeting with our colleagues in the Senate. Apart from the fact that the Senate President has been meeting with those who are aggrieved , we, members of the Like Minds Senators are also engaging them on one-on-one basis.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We are also meeting with our party leadership and I think the peace moves are achieving good result. It is in the interest of everybody that we have a united Senate.”
Some members of the Senate Unity Forum who are loyalists of Senator Lawan, also confirmed that Saraki and some of his supporters were making overtures to them.
The senators, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity because their leaders had barred them from granting interviews on the issue were, however, silent on whether the Saraki group offered them anything in return for their support.
A ranking senator from one of the South-West states said Saraki personally discussed with him on the matter.
He said, “It is true that the Like Minds Senators have been talking with us to support the leadership of Saraki but we told them that we are not having any personal issues with the Senate president and his deputy, Ekweremadu.
“We are upholding the sanctity of our political party and its leadership. We have told them our conditions for mutual relationship and cooperation. It is left for them to take appropriate actions.”
Another senator from the South-West also explained   that the SUF members would meet this week to review the reply of their party’s leadership to their conditions.
The group had through its spokesperson, Senator Kabiru Marafa, said it was demanding the immediate resignation of Ekweremadu and the   investigation of the Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, for his role in the June 9 Senate inauguration.
Our correspondents however gathered in Abuja on Sunday that the APC leaders opted to sheathe their sword after the Presidency reportedly intervened in the matter.
The APC had in a statement   by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, on Tuesday described the victory of Saraki   and Yakubu Dogara       as “unacceptable.”
Saraki, a former Kwara State governor, beat APC choice, Ahmed Lawan, to clinch the post while Dogara defeated Femi Gbajabiamila.
Describing   Saraki and Dogara’s decisions to defy its directive and vie for the posts as an act of “monumental indiscipline and betrayal,” the party vowed to sanction them in accordance with the provisions of its constitution.
However, after a series of consultations, the National Chairman of the party,   John Odigie-Oyegun,   on Friday announced that they were ready to work with Saraki and Dogara.
A prominent member of the APC,who pleaded for anonymity, explained to one of our correspondents that what Odigie-Oyegun said represented the position of the party’s National Working Committee.
He added that the APC was aware that if it kept to its hard line on the matter, the National Assembly members who backed Saraki and Dogara might rebel against it (APC).
The party member said, “We have to live with the   reality that Saraki and Dogara are the new leaders of the National Assembly. We don’t want a rebellion from our Senators and House members.
“However, those who defied us and did what they did will face a panel which will give them fair hearing before a disciplinary action.”
Asked what the disciplinary action would be, he replied, “Even a warning is a form of sanction.
“We have no intention to open ourselves up to what the Peoples Democratic Party did to itself in the case of (Aminu)Tambuwal .
“When he (Tambuwal) emerged against their (PDP) will, instead of finding a way to manage it, they alienated him until he left them with a lot of his colleagues to join us (APC). We will not allow this to happen to us.”
The party source also revealed that as part of efforts to further douse tension, Saraki and Dogara would be prevailed upon not to sideline their defeated colleagues.
Towards this end, they are expected to concede the chairmanship of some of choice committees in both the Senate and the House to members of the other camp.
When asked   if indeed Saraki had waved the Olive branch before the party’s   leadership and if indeed it     had accepted to work with Saraki and Dogara, the APC spokesman,     referred him to Odigie-Oyegun.
But calls to the mobile telephone number of Odigie-Oyegun were neither picked nor returned.
However, The PUNCH learnt that the leadership of the APC had   taken a position that the remaining seats in the House of Representatives like the Majority Leader, Chief Whip, Deputy Leader and Deputy Whip, were party seats.
Another top APC member said, “The party has come into these positions because they are party seats and the party reserves the power to share it to the zones.
“What we hear is that, to calm nerves, Femi Gbajabiamila(the defeated APC choice candidate for the House speakership)   will be the majority leader, while a member from Kano State, Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, will be his deputy.
“Monguno will likely be the chief whip while   Pally Iriase from Edo State, will deputise for him.”
But a former House spokesman and influential member of the 8th Assembly,   Zakari Mohammed, said that replacing an elected presiding officer with another person was not possible.
Mohammed noted that it was likely that people were making speculations in view of the outcomes of the elections.
But he parried a question on what role the House or the party would assign to Gbajabiamila.
“I don’t know, I can’t comment on that one,” he said.
Copyright PUNCH.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DEFECTIONS: Why Saraki, Dogara Others Must Heed Sen. Ibrahim's Call by Comrade Nwokoma Ndubuisi M.

The gale of defections in the National Assembly last week was followed by an advice from no one else than Sen. Abu Ibrahim that the Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki as well as the Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara and others in the fold of the All Progressives Congress APC that are still masquerading in the party should resign their membership of the party. This call which also implies that they resign their positions as leaders of the various arms of the National Assembly is yet to be complied with by those concerned as at the time of writing this piece Whatever their reasons for still staying put in the party may be, the fact of the matter is that their continued stay in the party has become a sore which must be extricated from the body.  As I watched through the proceedings of the defections on national television, I wept for the country for producing such leaders that lack morality despite all the party has given them politically which they ordin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rivers Governmnet, PDP Disagree Over $280 million Looan

The Rivers State Government and the Peoples Democratic Party in the state are currently at loggerheads over the request by the state Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, for a $280m loan for water and sanitation projects. While the state PDP said that the latest request for loan by the state government was unnecessary due to the resources accruing to the state through the federal allocation and internally generated revenue, the government said it was not true that the funds were to be used for 2015 elections. The state House of Assembly had on Monday endorsed Amaechi’s request for loan for water supply and sanitation projects. But the state PDP, in a statement, signed by the Special Adviser to its Chairman, Mr. Jerry Needam, said the request for loan was aimed at punishing the governor’s successor in 2015. The party called on members of the House of Assembly, the Federal Ministry of Finance, the African Development Bank and the World Bank not to honour the loan re...
Post a Comment
Read more

2019: Northern youths kick as Northwest APC lawmakers endorse Buhari

The leadership of the Arewa Youth Forum on Monday said President Muhammadu Buhari does not deserve any endorsement for the 2019 presidency. Reacting to a purported endorsement by some serving All Progressives Congress’s lawmakers from the Northwest in Kaduna, the AYF’s National President, Alhaji Gambo Gujungu, said Buhari was not fit to return as president in 2019. The AYF argued that with the killing spree all over the country, especially in the North, Buhari should serve his mandatory four years term and quit the stage for another Northerner. Gujungu noted that one sour point about President Buhari’s 2019 ambition was his claim that the killings across the country were being carried out by “desperate politicians”, yet he had not arrested even a single suspect. The AYF president, therefore, said Nigerians should blame the president for the attacks on innocent citizens. The AYF boss who spoke to our correspondent on phone on Monday, said the President’s cl...
Post a Comment
Read more