The intractable crisis that bedeviled the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, since the election of principal officers of the National Assembly, may have been resolved as the two contestants for the Senate Presidency seat yesterday reconciled. The reconciliation was brokered by the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
The two contestants, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Ahmed Lawan embraced to end the crisis that had threatened to tear the party apart. The party, yesterday, cancelled a meeting of its National Working Committee, NWC, as the reconciliation parley, held at the Asokoro residence of Oyegun lingered till late yesterday Though, no official statement was issued after the meeting, a source who witnessed the reconciliation said both Lawan and Saraki embraced each other and agreed to put their differences behind.
Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and Deputy Speaker, Sulieman Yusuf Lasun were also sighted leaving the private residence of the National Chairman.
The source said: “I can tell you that the Senate President has resolved his differences with the party. The chairman also met with both Speaker and his deputy and all the parties were beaming with smiles while entering their vehicles.”
Earlier in a statement, Oyegun had assured Nigerians that the party was working hard to resolve the crisis, to pave the way for the fulfilment of its campaign promises to Nigerians.
“The party has reached out to all interested parties, and when the National Assembly resumes next week (today) Nigerians will see one harmonious, happy APC family.
“We owe it to our party, our teeming members and supporters and indeed all Nigerians who reposed so much confidence in us by voting us into office to quickly put the unfortunate incidents of the recent past behind us and forge ahead,” Oyegun had said.
The NWC meeting was meant to settle the appointment of other principal officers of the National Assembly before the Progressives Governors Forum’s meeting which held last night.
Chief Oyegun, who returned to his office at about 5p.m after the meeting refused to give insight to the outcome of the meeting. He however said that the leadership is doing everything to ensure that peace reins in the party.
Meanwhile, seven members of the party’s NWC are said to be jostling to make the ministerial list being put together by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The national officers were said to have made their intentions known to Chief Odigie-Oyegun, who a source said was not comfortable with it and therefore has refused to endorse the arrangement.
The NWC members, the source said hail from Kwara, Ekiti, Adamawa, Gombe, Kogi and Enugu states. A highly placed source at the party’s national secretariat told our correspondent that when the NWC, led by the national chairman, earlier met with President Buhari at his temporary Defence House office in Abuja over ministerial list, the matter was not discussed.
The source said: “When the NWC met with Buhari on the issue of ministerial appointment, the national chairman refused to tender the request of some members who want to be ministers to President Muhammadu Buhari. The only thing he (Odigie-Oyegun) told him was for his leadership to be carried along in the process.
“But it seems President Buhari knew what was going on as he told the party leaders right there not to contemplate becoming part of his cabinet; he told them to stay where they are and build a strong party.
However, another source said the President may have yielded to the pressure from some of the party leaders and may have included some of the NWC members in the cabinet currently being screening by security agencies
Source: national mirror
