APC Crisis:

'Assembly Crisis: APC Govs, Lawmakers' Meeting Now Holds Tomorrow

25 Jul 2015

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Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja

The meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors and lawmakers earlier conceived to hold today ahead of National Assembly's resumption on Tuesday, will now hold tomorrow, THISDAY learnt on Friday.

The meeting scheduled to hold in Abuja at 8pm, is meant to end the protracted crisis rocking APC caucus in the federal parliament.

During the meeting, the two committees set up by the earlier meeting of APC governors with the feuding lawmakers and headed by the Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole and his Sokoto State counterpart, Aminu Tambuwal, are also expected to present their reports to the meeting.

At the last meeting of the governors with the combatant lawmakers on July 4 in Imo Governors' Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, the Tambuwal committee had been mandated to come up with a suitable solution to the crisis while the peace committee headed by Oshiomhole on the other hand, had been tasked to draw up a plan of reconciliation among the combatant lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly.

The APC governors had opted to intervene in the protracted crisis which followed the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively, on June 9, against the party's wish.

However, there are insinuations that it will take a divine intervention for the lawmakers to come out of the meeting on July 25, beaming with smiles as each of the factions has held on to its positions without any intention to shift grounds.

For instance, the Senate Unity Forum has refused to be pacified over its loss of Senate Presidency to rival Senators of Like Minds as well as the refusal of Senate President Bukola Saraki to accede to the nominations of his rival, Senator Ahmad Lawan, and Senator George Akume, by the party as Senate Leader and Deputy Senate Leader respectively.

The group which is also pursuing the allegation of forgery of 2015 Senate Standing Orders which it said helped Saraki and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, to emerge at the June 9 election of the Senate President and Deputy Senate President with the intention to declare the elections illegal, has also vowed to resist the sudden introduction of Order 3(iv) which offers PDP controlled zones the opportunity to occupy equal chairmanship positions with APC into the Senate Rules.

In the same vein, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has insisted that he would not accept the nomination of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as House Leader because the South-west where Gbajabiamila hails from has already produced the Deputy Speaker.

On the other hand, Gbajabiamila's camp has insisted that it is either the speaker accedes to the party nominations or nothing.

Against this background, it is left to be seen how tomorrow's meeting will end this seeming irreconcilable differences.