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.
“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.
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