The All Progressives Congress (APC) maybe heading for doom following the rejection of Senator Bukola Saraki and Honourable Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives reapectively.
But President Mohamadu Buhari in a move that shocked APC leaders however differed from the APC position and pledged to work with the new leadership of the national assembly.
Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the president on Media and publicity in a statement said” Muhammadu Buhari has noted the outcome of the just-concluded election of leaders of the National Assembly and noted that “the president would rather that the process of electing the leaders as initiated and concluded by the APC had been followed. Nonetheless the president took the view that a constitutional process has somewhat occurred”.
“President Buhari had said in an earlier statement that he did not have any preferred candidate for the Senate and the House of Representatives, and that he was willing to work with whoever the lawmakers elected,” Adesina said.
“That sentiment still stands. Though he would have preferred the new leaders to have emerged through the process established by the party”.
Adesina stressed that the stability of our constitutional order and overall interest of the common man were uppermost on the President’s mind, as far as the National Assembly elections were concerned.
The President called on all the elected representatives of the people to focus on the enormous task of bringing enduring positive change to the lives of Nigerians.
But an angry APC in a stateent issued by its publicity secretary Mr. Lai Mohammed described as totally unacceptable and the highest level of indiscipline and treachery the conduct of Tuesday’s inauguration of the National Assembly that led to the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively.
”Senator Bukola and Hon. Dogara are not the candidates of the APC and a majority of its National Assembly members-elect for the positions of Senate President and House Speaker. The party duly met and conducted a straw poll and clear candidates emerged for the posts of Senate President, Deputy Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, supported by a majority of all Senators-elect and members-elect of the House of Representatives. All National Assembly members-elect who emerged on the platform of the party are bound by that decision.
”The party is supreme and its interest is superior to that of its individual members,” the party said in a statement issued in Abuja Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed.
”Consequently, the APC leadership is meeting in a bid to re-establish discipline in the party and to mete out the necessary sanctions to all those involved in what is nothing but a monumental act of indiscipline
and betrayal to subject the party to ridicule and create obstacles for the new administration ” it said.
APC decried a situation in which some people, based on nothing but inordinate ambition and lack of discipline and loyalty, will enter into an unholy alliance with the very same people whom the party and indeed the entire country worked hard to replace and sell out the hard won victory of the Party.
”There can be no higher level of treachery, disloyalty and insincerity within any party,” the party said, vowing to resolve the matter using all constitutional and legal means available to it.
Meanwhile, the APC has asked all its loyal Senators-elect to please report to the Senate to be sworn-in in order to discharge their constitutional duties.
