. Count PDP out of race, Mark says
A meeting called by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to break the deadlock over the election of the two top positions in the National Assembly crashed yesterday.
Elected members of the party are locked in fierce struggle for the position of Senate President and Speaker House of Representatives since the APC won the general elections two months ago.
President Muhammadu Buhari has said he would not interfere in the choice of leaders of the assembly, a situation that has thrown the contest wide open and bruising.
The 8th Assembly is due to open on Tuesday but there is little sign that elected representatives are anywhere near a concensus.
Party executives finally decided to intervene and called separate meetings with senators-elect and House of Representatives members-elect for yesterday in Abuja.
But the meeting could not hold due to high-powered politicking by party chieftains and some APC governors.
Our correspondents gathered from party sources that some governors prevailed on the national leadership not to hold the meeting.
They alleged that some members-elect of the 8th National Assembly intended to take the opportunity of the meeting to call for primaries to be conducted as a way of resolving the current logjam.
A source said the APC governors led by one of the new governors from the North-west geopolitical zone who has had an experience as a federal lawmaker and another from the same zone who is serving a second term, argued that if primaries are conducted, the processes would polarize the aspirants and some might rebel against the party in the end.
Both the governors and party chieftains are pushing for the resolution of the crisis by the party before calling for the meeting with the lawmakers.
“They want a situation where the party would take a position, not necessarily imposing it on the lawmakers but for them to use it as a guide,” the source said.
A member of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) who preferred not to be named confirmed this when he said the meeting was suspended due to some pressing reasons.
However, national secretary of the party Mai Mala Buni, told Daily Trust on telephone that the meeting was suspended because both chambers of the National Assembly were holding a valedictory session.
“It is not about some supporters planning to air their grievances at the meeting. The valedictory session is very important for the lawmakers as it will be the last meeting before the inauguration of the new National Assembly for the new government,” he said.
APC national publicity secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed told Daily Trust via SMS that the meeting was scheduled before the party realised that the National Assembly members would hold their valedictory session yesterday.
The senators-elect are torn between Senator Bukola Saraki from the North-central zone and Senator Ahmed Lawan from the North-east, for the Senate presidency, while the Reps-elect are trying to decide between Yakubu Dogara and Femi Gbajabiamila.
While leaders of the APC are said to be supporting the aspirations of Lawan, Saraki is said to have gone very far with the support of his colleagues in the 7th Senate who are returning to the Red chamber as well as with the PDP senators-elect.
The APC has 59 senators for the 8th Senate while the PDP has 49.
Some members of the House of Reps under the Consolidation Group on Wednesday raised an alarm that some APC chieftains were making moves to manipulate the process of electing their leaders in the House.
They had alleged that despite the stand taken by President Muhammadu Buhari that he would not interfere in the leadership tussle of the National Assembly, some party leaders are hell-bent on subverting the process by planning to bring in an alien democratic conduct.
-Daily Trust
