The
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun,
on Friday said the party had accepted Senator
Bukola Saraki as the President of
the Senate.
He said the reality was that
Saraki’s colleagues had duly elected him and the party was ready to live with
the reality.
Odigie-Oyegun spoke with State House
correspondents shortly after joining members of the transition committee set up
by President Muhammadu Buhari to present their report to the President at the
Defence House, Abuja.
Saraki and Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, both of the APC, emerged as leaders of the
National Assembly on Tuesday against the directives of the party which had
earlier asked its members to vote for Senator Ahmed Lawan and Femi
Gbajabiamila.
Since their emergence, the party had
insisted that Saraki, Dogara and their supporters would be sanctioned.
When asked specifically whether the
party would accept Saraki as the President of the Senate, Odigie-Oyegun said,
“Of course! He has been duly elected by his colleagues. We have a reality and
we must live with it.”
On Saraki’s aborted visit to the APC
secretariat on Thursday, the party chairman said there were a lot of
consultations going on at that time and he could not have been in two places at
the same time.
He however said party chiefs were
already talking with Saraki and would not want to make noise about it.
“Nothing went wrong (on Saraki’s
aborted visit), there were a lot of consultations and you can’t be in two
places at the same time.
“So, it was not comfortable
for us, but we have been talking. We don’t want to make a song and dance of it,
everything is being put in proper perspective,” he said.
On the crisis that erupted in the
party after the elections in the National Assembly, Odigie-Oyegun said the APC
had faced greater challenges before and the latest one too would pass away.
“It is not the first or second time
we have passed through this kind of scenario and we came out strong. This may
not even be the last time, we come out every time stronger and more
determined,” he said.
The party chairman said what
happened was within the APC family and they were sorting it out within the family.
He added that aggrieved persons who
threatened to go to court were doing so within their rights.
“People say they are going to court
which is their right, but as a party, we are looking at everything and we are
coming out strong,” he concluded.
Source:Punch Newspaper.

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