The All Progressives Congress (APC) is plotting to stop its aggrieved members in the National Assembly from thwarting its consensus option on the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives. New Telegraph learnt yesterday that in a bid to ensure the election of Senator Ahmed Lawan as Senate president and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as House speaker, the party had mulled writing the Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa, to ensure that the election of leaders for the two chambers would be a mere coronation for the duo.
The plot, it was gathered was to ensure that Lawan and Gbajabiamila’s challengers, Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara respectively, would not be nominated for the positions when the legislature would elect its leaders after the inauguration of the eighth National Assembly tomorrow. The crisis over the jockeying for the Senate presidency and House speakership among APC members reached a head at the weekend as some kicked against the results of the straw polls through which Lawan and Gbajabiamila emerged as consensus candidates. Aggrieved members of the party vowed yesterday to defy APC and vote for different candidates, especially in the wake of protests from the camps of Saraki and Dogara.
Dogara and his supporters, led by Hon Abdulmumini Jibrin, staged a walkout, describing the mock primary as predetermined while Lawan emerged despite the boycott by Saraki’s supporters. Both Saraki and Dogara have also insisted on testing their popularity among their colleagues, irrespective of the party’s position. However, the party resorted to damage control in the wake of the brewing crisis as it appealed to all its aggrieved members to put the APC interest above personal interests, adding that they should avoid a situation whereby any other candidates, apart from Lawan and Gbajabiamila will emerge as Senate president and House speaker. However, the APC’s plot to stop Saraki and Dogara from running, it was learnt, has split the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) just as some members of the national caucus have reportedly kicked against the plot.
The source said: “The idea(to write the clerk) is to officially communicate to the CNA, intimating him that the party had taken a decision or a particular position and that nominations should possibly be restricted to the choices listed in the correspondence.” As part of the plot to stop Saraki and Dogara, the source said the APC leadership would, in each case, make a lawmaker in each of the two chambers to move a motion for the adoption of the correspondence from the party. “Those who want Saraki and Dogara out of the race are very vicious and mean; could you imagine that they intend to write the Clerk of the National Assembly to inform him of the decision of the party that choices have been made on the issue of the leadership of both chambers. “We are watching these developments but there is little or nothing we can do because those who are behind the move are very serious with it and can even blackmail anybody on their way. Unfortunately, this whole saga has polarised all organs of the party, including the NWC.
“What we are told is that it will work but how? The rules of the National Assembly are clear and I do not know if the clerk has the powers to entertain any debate; it is doubtful, he cannot even stop any one from being nominated, so how they intend to push the idea through is what we are waiting for. “When the idea first came that Lawan and Gbajabiamila should be, some of us insisted that the leadership of the party should meet the members- elect from the PDP because in both cases, it does appear that we do not have the overwhelming majority to push the choices through without PDP.
“The suggestion was rubbished that PDP was not needed at all but today, they are trying to lobby the same PDP members they ignored. How that will translate to what they desire is what we are looking at.” It was gathered that one of APC national leaders, Senator Bola Tinubu, would tonight meet some PDP members of the National Assembly ahead of tomorrow’s inauguration to urge them to back his party’s position on the leadership tussle. However, Saraki yesterday dismissed the consensus arrangement that produced Lawan, saying he will for the election tomorrow. Saraki, in a statement, said he had the backing of 65 senators across party lines for the contest tomorrow.
He is bill to unveil his supporters at a press briefing today in Abuja. Out of the 65 senators, Saraki said were supporting him, 39 are in the PDP, which has a total of 49 senators-elect. According to a source, the depletion of Saraki’s support base among the APC senators-elect from 35 earlier claimed by his group, the “Like Minds Senators,” to 26 on Saturday night, was as a result of last-minute defections by some of them into the Senate Unity Forum, the Lawan support group. Saraki, in the statement by coordinators of the ‘Like Minds Senators’ , Dino Melaye ( Kogi West) and Rufai Ahmad Sani Yerima (Zamfara West) said the outcome of the APC primary election was not binding on him. His group also insisted on open secret voting process as a way of choosing the Senate president. Also, Dogara’s supporters, under the auspices of Consolidation Group, have rejected the choice of Gbajabiamila by the APC.
The group has written President Muhammadu Buhari over the crisis in the House. Briefing the press yesterday in Abuja, leader of the group, Hon. Abdulmumini Jibrin, said the mock election that produced Gbajabiamila was marred by fraud and was against the party’s constitution. “The 154 votes they allocated to Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and gave us three votes show the party has made a mockery of itself. We walked out of the venue and yet somebody allocated votes to us. So members of the public will understand how things have degenerated in our party. “We never participated in that election. We rejected that election. The numbers that were allocated to us, we rejected them. So ask the party to please toe the path of honour and allow us to decide who will be our speaker. The House should be left alone to elect its speaker on Tuesday”, he said.
The lawmaker, who addressed the press in company of Dogara and other members, accused Tinubu of trying to pocket the House by ‘foisting’ Gbajabiamila on the lawmakers. He said: “The number four citizen (speaker of the House) of the country cannot be pocketed by one individual because of his greedy disposition.
“In 2011, some of us were in the PDP and we saw what happened. We are not surprised that after huge intimidation, such numbers are being bandied about as the supporters of a candidate. “Just two weeks after swearing in, is this the change that we want to offer Nigerians? The kind of manipulation we saw yesterday, we have not seen before in this country.” The lawmakers said Buhari should call the leadership of the party to order. But the party yesterday called for restraint just as it reached out to aggrieved members.
It said in a statement in Abuja by its National Secretary, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, that it was natural for some members to be disappointed by the outcome of the straw poll that produced Lawan and Gbajabiamila. ”However, we must put the interest of our party above personal interests and avoid a situation whereby any other candidates, apart from those picked by the party, will emerge as Senate President and House Speaker on Tuesday. ”Any outstanding issues will be resolved by the party so we won’t go into Tuesday’s election with more than one candidate each for the two posts, Senate president and speaker, House of Representatives,” it said. According to APC, it will be a shame if, despite its majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, the APC is unable to produce the Senate president and House speaker of its choice. APC explained that its role in the entire business of ensuring a common front within the party ahead of tomorrow’s election is that of an honest broker, saying its goal of ensuring that the party does not go into the election with more than one candidate for each post has now been achieved.
The party appealed to all aggrieved members to sheathe their swords and allow peace to reign, in the overall interest of not just the party but the nation. Meanwhile, memberselect from the North-West and North-East geopolitical zone have resolved to vote en masse for Gbajabiamila tomorrow.
They have also endorsed Hon. Tahir Mohammed Monguno and Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa as deputy speaker and majority leader respectively. Spokesman for the group and member-elect for Jigawa State, Mr. Sani Zoro, said the choice of Gbajabiamila was informed by the fact that he had acquitted himself creditable as leader of opposition and it was only natural that he should transmute to the position of speaker. Besides, the South- West, where Gbajabiamila hails from, contributed the third highest votes for the APC in the general elections after North-West and North-East and deserved to be rewarded.
It was, however, learnt that some APC members have vowed to resist the imposition of Gbajabiamila as speaker. A member-elect from Ondo State said the process through which Gbajabiamila emerged was fraught with irregularities and they would not allow it to stand. The lawmaker-elect queried the rationale for giving all the positions meant for South-West to only Lagos State as if it is the only state in the Yoruba speaking area.
-New Telegraph
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