Fights for N/Assembly Leadership Tear APC Apart

A meeting of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President, with elected lawmakers to reconcile aggrieved members over the leadership of the National Assembly has failed to broker a truce, suggesting that crisis may brewing in the All Progressives Congress (APC) which wrested majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives at the last general elections.

According to reports, the meeting which was initially meant to broker peace between the aggrieved legislators over the choice of Ahmed Lawan as Senate and Rep Femi Gbajabiamila was chaired by Chief John Oyegun, party’s chairman instead of Prof. Osinbajo.

The meeting yielded little success, as opposition to its anointed candidates for the Senate president, Senator Ahmad Lawan and speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, remained resolute in the decision to confront the party’s stance on the floor of the two chambers today.

The inauguration of the eighth National Assembly expected to produce the principal officers as the majority party, could spring some surprises as Senator Bukola Saraki and Honourable Yakubu Dogara insisted they were still in the race for Senate president and speaker, House of Representatives respectively.

Dogara, on Monday, boasted that he was confident of trumping the party’s candidate, Gbajabiamila.

As the meeting was about to begin, a source close to Dogara sent a statement that all legislators loyal to the Bauchi member should not attend as there was a plan to arrest and detain them, thereby shutting them out until after the election.

The message reads: “Information reaching us indicates that this purported meeting is a ploy to arrest and detain members until after tomorrow’s election. Members should therefore disregard the invitation.”

Insiders hinted yesterday that neither Osinbajo nor the aggrieved members attended the meeting following the text message circulated by a highly placed supporter of Dagara that there were plans to arrest them and detain them until today’s election was conducted.

The lawmakers who had converged for the meeting left the venue at about 7pm when it was obvious that the Vice President will not make it to the venue.

The party members, excluding the Saraki and Dogara groups, insisted that all the party members should rally round their agreed candidates.

However, a source told our correspondent that, “We have discovered that it is the PDP that is trying to split our party.”

Rep Parry Iriase (APC Edo), representing Owan Federal constituency told journalists that they had to leave because they still had a lot of things to tidy up before the inauguration of the House on Tuesday.

Iriase said the legislators have already met and conducted a mock election, pointing out that aim of the meeting was ensure that the party got the Assembly united.

He said, “We have met at various levels and we have been meeting. The essence of this meeting was for the Vice President to address all the lawmakers, including those who are not happy with the mock elections.

“For those of us in the House of Representatives, we believe that out of the about 209 elected APC members, we have over 70 percent of them, on our side and we are confident that when we get to the House, we will muster enough members to get the position of Speaker”.

“Nigerians should expect a united APC at the end of tomorrow because we are a family and we believe that this is democracy in action. We are confident that things will work out well”, he said.

Asked why they were dispersing before the arrival of the Vice President, he said, “We were told that the Vice President was coming to address us. But we have waited and he is not here. We are told he is airborne and that he will come. But we have other things we need to iron out before tomorrow. So had to leave.

Meanwhile, the National Working Committee meeting of the APC has ordered all its Senators and members of the House of Representatives to vote for Ahmed Lawan as Senate and Rep Femi Gbajabiamila as Speaker, in today’s election.

Oyegun, had appealed to the APC members in the National Assembly to respect the decision the party took in selecting the persons that will be presented to the National Assembly as presiding officers.

Addressing journalists in his office yesterday, Oyegun said all what the party did was to provide the platform for all elected members of the party only where they themselves took in selecting the persons that will be presented to the National Assembly as presiding officers.

His words ,”I want to appeal to APC members of the National Assembly, both Senate and the House of Representatives to please respect the party, the views of the party and the decision that they themselves took in selecting the persons that will be presented to the National Assembly as presiding officers.”

But APC governors headed by Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state slated a meeting for yesterday as part of desperate move to broker truce among the aggrieved party members.

The meeting which held at the Imo state government lodge,Asokoro had in attendance the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom and his Kebbi State counterpart, Senator Atiku Bagudu,

Both governors were however, seen driving out of the venue late yesterday night. There were speculations that the meeting did not hold because of lack of quorum. But there were speculations too that the meeting had been moved to an unknown destination.