PDP Members Endorse Saraki, Dogara As Candidates
The crisis rocking members of the All Progressive Congress at the National Assembly has taken a new dimension as members of the opposition party Peoples Democratic Party are bent on creating an upset.
The PDP allegedly endorsed the two main aggrieved APC contestants, Senator Bukola Saraki and Honourable Yakubu Dogara for the positions of Senate president and speaker respectively.
The duo separately walked out during the APC's mock election to pick a sole candidate of the party for the positions. The aggrieved members cited irregularities in the conduct of the mock elections, arguing that principal members of the 8 assembly can only emerge in the hallowed chamber of the Assembly.
READ ALSO: Senator Saraki Snobs APC Leadership Meeting
Meanwhile, Yunusa Abubakar, a representative-elect from Gombe state, in an interview with Channels Television, which was monitored by Legit.ng, said that the party leadership had hitherto told members-elect from the APC that it would not intervene in who emerge the Senate president and speaker, and wondered about the sudden change.
He added that, though the party has had its way, on Tuesday, June 9, Nigerians would choose their leaders.
As APC governors held an emergency meeting yesterday to prevent any upset to their plan for both Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila to be appointed, as well as to try to calm the rising tension, it turns out that the meeting did not have the desired effect, as the Sakari and Dogara camps vowed to go ahead to produce themselves against the APC’s nominees.
READ ALSO: New Twist To Speakership Race, Gbajabiamila Reacts
Sources close to the aggrieved members want President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene and calm the development. At the time of filing this report, it is not clear what will be the outcome of the several marathon meetings as APC faces its first test of unity.
However, the national publicity secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, last week told reporters in Abuja, that the party was not part of the alleged plot to abrogate the normal practice whereby a party with a majority of elected senators or members of the House of Representatives produces the Senate president or House of Representatives speaker.
Metuh said: “That was not part of the PDP retreat for members of the National Assembly in Port Harcourt. PDP has no such plot to upstage the All Progressives Congress in presenting leadership at the National Assembly.
“The truth is that we are ready to present a credible opposition to the All Progressives Congress as the ruling party. We wish President Muhammadu Buhari success and hope he would be able to turn around the economy.”
Source: Legit.ng
