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Buhari Shuns Tinubu, Others Over Senate Presidency Meeting, As APC Rejects Saraki As Senate President.
The much-anticipated meeting on Tuesday between President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Assembly members failed to hold.
The meeting, convened to resolve the controversy surrounding the election of the leadership of the National Assembly, was scheduled for 9 am at the International Conference Centre (ICC) according to reports in THISDAY.
Buhari was expected to preside over the meeting, but he did not show up.
There was a mild drama at the venue of the meeting as some lawmakers who were present dashed out of the venue in confusion when the news filtered in that Senator Bukola Saraki had emerged as the Senate president.
While these lawmakers were at ICC waiting for the arrival of Buhari for the meeting to commence, their other colleagues were on the floor of the Senate where Saraki was elected the Senate president unopposed, while Ike Ekweremadu beat Senator Ali Ndume to return as the Senate deputy president.
However, no official reason was given for the presidentâs absence at Tuesdayâs meeting.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as totally unacceptable and the “highest level of indiscipline and treachery” the conduct of Tuesdayâs inauguration of the National Assembly that led to the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Mr. Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively.
This was contained in a statement by APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja on Tuesday.
APC said: “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.
“Consequently, the APC leadership is meeting in a bid to reestablish 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.”
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.
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