President Muhammadu Buhari's 20-minutes meeting with members of the House of Representatives finally ended the 49-day-old crisis rocking the lower chamber of the National Assembly yesterday.

But that can't be said of the senate, which still defies overtures by the All Progressives Congress (APC), whose decision Buhari said is supreme and must be binding on the senators elected under the ruling

Speaker Yakubu Dogara defeated Femi Gbajabiamila, the party's favourite candidate, with a slight margin of eight votes in the June 9 elections, where they scored 182 and 174 votes respectively.

After two months of bad blood, Dogara succumbed to the party's position by announcing Gbajabiamila (Lagos) as house leader, Buba Jibril (Kogi) Deputy Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa (Kano) chief whip and Pally Iriase (Edo) deputy whip. The emergence of Gbajabiamila as house leader as the APC leadership instructed only ended the power tussle so far in the lower chamber, which coincidently has little to do with the next task before President Buhari, which is appointment of ministers and envoys, among other things. While the president's 20-minute magic meeting worked with the House, the senators, who had no such meetings with Buhari since the crisis started, seemed to have been emboldened in their continued defiance of the party and by extension the president.

Since the election of Bukola Saraki (Kwara) as senate president and Ike Ekweremadu (Imo) as his deputy against APC's endorsed candidate Ahmed Lawan (Yobe), the crisis has refused to abate. Subsequent attempts by the party to make Saraki announce Lawan as senate leader, George Akume (Benue) deputy leader, Shola Adeyeye (Osun) chief whip and Abu Ibrahim (Katsina) deputy whip have not been successful.

Attempts by the Saraki group to have one-on-one interface with Buhari, who still insists on party's supremacy, have not been fruitful so far. Saraki was elected by 57 senators on June 9, with 49 of them from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the remaining eight from the APC. The Saraki election saga was further compounded by the emergence of a PDP senator as his deputy. Analysts thought the Saraki group would soft pedal and appease the party by announcing the Lawal-led team as principal officers of the senate, but they were wrong.

Saraki again defied the party by announcing Ali Ndume (Borno) as majority leader, Bala Na'Allah (Kebbi) chief whip and Francis Aimikhena (Edo) as deputy chief whip. On the other hand, Saraki's group seemed to be making inroad into the pro-Lawan base in the senate with yesterday's vote of confidence on Saraki and his leadership. The vote of confidence was sponsored through a motion by Samuel Anyanwu (Imo East) and 80 other senators. And it was adopted, which further distanced the senate leadership from the APC leadership. The message the Saraki group sent was that despite their rebellion, they are still in control. The irony here is that while the tussle continued, Saraki was able to cajole senators from the Lawan's side to his.

He was able to garner 34 pro-Lawan senators to endorse his vote of confidence yesterday, a strong signal that the party is losing the battle. Anyanwu's motion was a response to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)'s invitation of Saraki's wife, Toyin over corruption charges. "The motion became necessary in view of the sustained interference in the internal affairs of the senate by detractors and media propaganda against senate and senators by selfish politicians," he said.

Names of former governors Ahmed Sani Yarima (Zamfara), Bukar Abba Ibrahim (Yobe), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Kabiru Gaya (Kano), among others prominently featured on the confidence endorsement list.

Pro-Saraki senators had questioned the Toyin invitation, claiming that it is not unrelated with the leadership crisis in the senate. In an unprecedented manner, some senators loyal to Saraki also escorted his wife to the anti-graft agency yesterday.

While Toyin Saraki was being quizzed by EFCC at its Abuja office, 10 senators, 20 House of Representatives members, among other crowd kept vigil. The senators included Isa Sani, Dino Melaye, Abdul Abubakar, Binta Koji, Abdulahi Sabi and Peter Nwaoboshi.

The speaker of Kwara State House of Assembly Razak Atunwa was also there. The issue of forgery of the Senate Rules that paved way for the emergence of Ekweremadu is another factor that has continued to fuel the APC-Saraki leadership crisis. Ekweremadu, clerk of the National Assembly Salisu Maikasuwa, and other senators were quizzed by the police over the alleged crime.

The reconciliatory meeting convened by the APC governors to broker peace among feuding camps at the senate was deadlocked last Sunday. The APC governors committee chaired by Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole and his Kebbi counterpart Abubakar Atiku Bagudu couldn't produce any result. The Lawal group boycotted the meeting. Efforts by Oshiomhole to make the Saraki camp shift ground also failed.

This further explained the continuous defiance of the party leadership and the presidency by the "rebelling" senators. Aside that, Buhari's change vision for the country must be implemented through executive bills, which also requires senate approval. His fight against corruption, which is his key policy issue, also requires some changes in the laws which must be done with senate concurrence.

The politicization of Saraki's wife invitation by EFCC and police probe of the forgery in the senate by some lawmakers has already started sending wrong signals and may transform into a cog in the wheel of Buhari's anti-graft agenda, many analysts believed. Dozens of senators, including the senate president and most former state governors, were either investigated by the anti-graft agencies or have pending cases in court.