Date: 2015-06-12

• Lawan's supporters insist on sanctions • Gbajabiamila accepts defeat • Saraki: I have found a worthy partner in Dogara

The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has decided to collaborate with President Muhammadu Buhari in finding a peaceful solution to the crisis that rocked the National Assembly over the election of its principal officers.

The reconciliatory move by the party comes on the heels of insistence by its loyal members of the National Assembly that the party must take measures to sanction all those involved in thwarting its decision on the choice of leadership of the legislative chambers.

It also came just as one of the key actors, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, has said he has accepted the outcome of the election at the lower chamber of the federal legislature and pledged to work with the new leadership.

Under the planned peace accord termed "Triangular Peace Template", the party hopes to consult with the Presidency and National Assembly to fashion out acceptable measures to be implemented so as to enable peace to reign in the legislative chamber.

Speaking to journalists shortly after a meeting with the party leadership yesterday, a member of the House of Representatives, Sani Zoro, said he does not want anything that will rock the boat or bring about rancour between the executive and the legislature in this dispensation and as such has asked its loyal members not to take any retaliatory action for now.

He said the party leadership has the capacity to manage the crisis and that it had assured members that it would work with the Presidency and members in the National Assembly to come up with acceptable peace template in a few days'time.

"Even though you cannot have a fix-all solution, I can assure you that the measures being worked out by the party, the Presidency and the National Assembly is being triangulated and will involve all the three main institutional stakeholders which is the Presidency, the National Assembly and the party, and I can assure you that it will accommodate all the concerns and the fears and at the end of it, it will provide a single template for everybody to key in," he said.

One of the men at the centre of the conflict in the National Assembly, Hon. Gbajabiamila, while explaining their mission at the party office, said they had accepted the outcome of the election in the House of Representatives.

"We just had an election in the house so we came to meet with the party regarding the outcome of the election and the party is going to remain strong and united so that we can deliver the deliverables and the programme of the party through the house.

"We will work with the leadership of the house and with the speaker for as long as the party's programmes are properly articulated and pursued on the floor of the house. He's an APC member, he's not the speaker of the APC but the speaker of the whole house so we will work with him," he said.

Another member of the House of Representatives from Borno State who was chosen by the party as its preferred candidate for the office of Deputy Speaker, Mohammed Tahir Mungonu, also bared his mind on the meeting with the party's NWC, describing it as very fruitful. He said the party had implored them to allow peace to reign and to accept the reality that a new National Assembly leadership had emerged, adding that they should stay action pending planned interventions by the party.

On their mission to the party secretariat, he said: "We were summoned by our party to come and they urged us as loyal party members to continue to support the government so that the lofty aims and objective for which the Nigerian people supported the APC to form government is achieved to the fullest.

"As such, we should not take any step that is going to be in contradiction to the peace order and good governance of this country. As loyal party members, we are fully conscious of the fact that we are in control of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and as such, we are not going to take any step that is going to derail the performance of that government inspite of the ugly scenario that had happened." According to both Munguno and Zoro, none of the disloyal party men and masterminds of the revolt against the party's consensus deal should be allowed to profit from their misdeeds.

"Definitely, if a party member erred, there must be sanction so that it will serve as a deterrent for others not to do same in future. Measures have been agreed upon that will de-escalate the crisis, this is the first thing we will do. I assure you that those who master minded the crisis who thought they are going to benefit politically from it will be surprised.

"APC will bounce back for so many reasons. First of all, apart from the fact that APC has a clear majority in both the National Assembly and in full control of the federal government and in states like Kano for instance, the entire machinery of the party and the followership is APC," he said. Earlier, the party's leadership had conferred with its embattled National Assembly members, Senators Ahmed Lawan and George Akume, who are at the centre of the power tussle in the upper legislative chamber.

The meeting, which took place in the National Chairman's Conference Room at the APC national secretariat, had loyalists of Senator Ahmed Lawan in attendance, who insisted that the senators who defied the position of the party must be sanctioned. The APC National Chairman, John Oyegun, and other National Working (NWC) members had also met behind closed doors with Gbajabiamila. THISDAY learnt that the meeting was intended to review the crisis that rocked the party's plan to enthrone its preferred candidates at the National Assembly.

A source told THISDAY that Oyegun used the opportunity to explain to the senators some of the decisions taken by the party leadership in response to the defiant attitude of the Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara.

It was gathered that rather than extract an order for an immediate sanction against Saraki, Dogara and their co-travellers, the embattled duo of Lawan and Akume were told by Oyegun that the NWC would follow due process in disciplining the members.

Both Lawan and Akume along with their loyalists wore gloomy faces as they emerged from the meeting with the party's NWC. There were Indications that the party leadership may have asked the embattled senators to put on hold their threat to drag the new National Assembly leadership to court.

Sources said the meeting considered various options to tackle the situation but in the end reason prevailed and it was agreed that the supporting senators should sheathe their swords for now to allow the party handle the matter. The senators were also asked to desist from speaking to the media on the issue since it is being regarded as an intra party squabble which can be resolved internally without allowing it to escalate further.

While speaking to journalists on the meeting with the senators, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the party leadership had discussions with them on the leadership crisis in the National Assembly.

On the issue of sanctions on the disloyal members, Mohammed said the party had not changed its position on the matter, adding that it had decided to follow due process. "Sanctions must follow due process. Won't you tell someone his offence? It is not the issue of disciplinary panel, but there will be due process," he said.

Mohammed however could not say specifically what the fate of the recalcitrant lawmakers will be under the circumstance. The spokesman could only promise that the decision would be made public soon. "We will let you know," he said. Also when Mohammed was asked to comment on the information that the Senate President Saraki had intended to visit the party headquarters, he said: "I'm not aware, probably if you wait you will see him."

On whether the party will support the decision of the Lawan group to go to court, Mohammed said: "I think the party made its expression clear on the matter, that it is unhappy with the outcome of the election and I think we won't say anything beyond that."

But unfazed by the controversy trailing their election and the possible sanctions that could follow, Senate President Saraki yesterday congratulated Dogara on his election as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, saying he had found a worthy partner in the pursuit of effective legislative agenda for the eighth National Assembly. In a statement, Saraki described Dogara as a "consumate politician and an effective leader capable of galvanising the lower chamber into greater efficiency".

According to him, Dogara's victory at Tuesday's election was an eloquent testimony of his wide range of acceptability among members of the House. He urged members of the House to put behind them divisions caused by the election and rally round the new leadership in the overall interest of all.

"It is time to unite, pull together and move the National Assembly forward in the right direction. There should be no ill will towards one another. We must all move together irrespective of party affilliations. This is the time to join hands to move the House, which is already reputed for its vibrancy forward. The country is waiting for us to take it to the next level through people oriented legislation.

"Above all, let national interest be uppermost in your new leadership role most especially in making laws that will bring the greatest good to greatest number of our people. We have been called to leadership at a critical time in our nation's history. We are besieged by insurgency, unemployment, dwindling economic fortunes and a massive infrastructural deficit.

"These challenges are urgent and require that we find ways to forge a collective national agenda, a minimum deliverable legislative intervention that we must fast track to help underpin the policy direction of the executive and give a new lease of life to our people again," Saraki said.

While wishing the speaker a peaceful and successful tenure in office, he sought his collaboration "to forge a closer engagement to achieve seamless legislative progress between both chambers".

Meanwhile, a group, Abubakar Bukola Saraki Leadership Forum (ABSLF), has declared that the recent emergence of Saraki as the senate president would solidify all caucuses of the ruling APC and also bring dividends of democracy to the people. Speaking at a news conference in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital yesterday, the leader of the group, Alhaji Usman Bibire Ajape, said Saraki should not be seen as the evil mastermind.

A

jape, who is also the special adviser to the state governor on Political Matters, said the ACN, CPC, and ANPP, which are main political parties that came together to form APC, had benefited from the merger.

"The president came from the CPC bloc, the vice-president from the ACN bloc, the national chairman of the party from the ANPP bloc, therefore, the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as the senate president is a show of inculcation and recognition of the source where APC draw strengths," he said.

The group, which commended President Buhari for holding true to his words of non-interference with the politics of the National Assembly, "even in the face of inordinate pressure to act otherwise", said that it respected the president for being a man of principle. He said Saraki was one of the leaders of APC who had as much stake as former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

"It is cheap thinking to harbour thoughts that a man who worked tirelessly to deliver Kwara to APC, at so much expense dumping the ruling party, for a party in embryo would be rooting for the destruction of such party," he added.