PDP Members Endorse Saraki, Dogara As Candidates
The crisis rocking members of the APC in the National Assembly has taken a new dimension as members of the opposition party PDP are bent on creating a upset by allegedly endorsing the two main aggrieved APC contestants, Senator Bukola Saraki and Honourable Yakubu Dogara for the positions of Senate president and speaker respectively.
The duo separately staged walk outs during the APC’s mock election to pick a sole candidate of the party for the positions. The aggrieved members cited irregularities in the conduct of the mock elections, arguing that principal members of the 8th assembly can only emerge in the hallowed chamber of the Assembly.
Meanwhile, Yunusa Abubakar, a representative-elect from Gombe state, in an interview with Channels Television that was monitored by naij.com, said that the party leadership had hitherto told members-elect from the APC that it would not intervene in who became the Senate president and speaker, and wondered about the sudden change. He added that, though the party has had its way, on Tuesday (today), Nigerians would choose their leaders.
As APC governors held an emergency meeting yesterday to prevent any upset to their plan for both Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila to be appointed, and to try to calm the rising tension, it turns out that the meeting did not have the desired effect, as the Sakari and Dogara camps have vowed to go ahead to produce themselves against the APC’s nominees.
Sources close to the aggrieved members want President Buhari to intervene on the issue. At the time of filing this report it is not clear what will be the outcome of the several marathon meetings as APC faces its first test of unity.
However, the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, last week told reporters in Abuja that the party was not part of the alleged plot to abrogate the normal practice whereby a party with a majority of elected senators or members of the House of Representatives produces the Senate president or House of Representatives speaker.
Metuh said, “That was not part of the PDP retreat for members of the National Assembly in Port Harcourt. PDP has no such plot to upstage the All Progressives Congress in presenting leadership at the National Assembly.”
He stated further “The truth is that we are ready to present a credible opposition to the All Progressives Congress as the ruling party. We wish President Muhammadu Buhari success and hope he would be able to turn around the economy.”
The duo separately staged walk outs during the APC’s mock election to pick a sole candidate of the party for the positions. The aggrieved members cited irregularities in the conduct of the mock elections, arguing that principal members of the 8th assembly can only emerge in the hallowed chamber of the Assembly.
Meanwhile, Yunusa Abubakar, a representative-elect from Gombe state, in an interview with Channels Television that was monitored by naij.com, said that the party leadership had hitherto told members-elect from the APC that it would not intervene in who became the Senate president and speaker, and wondered about the sudden change. He added that, though the party has had its way, on Tuesday (today), Nigerians would choose their leaders.
As APC governors held an emergency meeting yesterday to prevent any upset to their plan for both Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila to be appointed, and to try to calm the rising tension, it turns out that the meeting did not have the desired effect, as the Sakari and Dogara camps have vowed to go ahead to produce themselves against the APC’s nominees.
Sources close to the aggrieved members want President Buhari to intervene on the issue. At the time of filing this report it is not clear what will be the outcome of the several marathon meetings as APC faces its first test of unity.
However, the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, last week told reporters in Abuja that the party was not part of the alleged plot to abrogate the normal practice whereby a party with a majority of elected senators or members of the House of Representatives produces the Senate president or House of Representatives speaker.
Metuh said, “That was not part of the PDP retreat for members of the National Assembly in Port Harcourt. PDP has no such plot to upstage the All Progressives Congress in presenting leadership at the National Assembly.”
He stated further “The truth is that we are ready to present a credible opposition to the All Progressives Congress as the ruling party. We wish President Muhammadu Buhari success and hope he would be able to turn around the economy.”
