Crisis Erupts As APC Senators Disagree On Key NASS Positions (VIDEO)

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A peace meeting summoned yesterday by Senate President Bukola Saraki ended abruptly as Senators elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress who attended the meeting almost exchanged blows.

The meeting which began around 2 pm was to resolve the crisis over the remaining Senate positions, including Senate Leader, Deputy Senate Leader, Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip.

The Senate had shortly after the resumption of the plenary yesterday, entered to a closed-door meeting which lasted for 45 minutes, trying to resolve the political impasse of allocating principal offices to and seats to members, which had bedevilled the legislative activities in the upper chamber since Bukola Saraki emerged the Senate President.

However, as the APC lawmakers failed to agree on who becomes the Senate Leader; the Senate President invited the APC senators to another meeting immediately after the plenary session yesterday.

The APC senators had based on announcement made by Saraki during plenary assembled at room 301 of the Senate new wing for a meeting with him, which however resulted into agitated commotion between the pro and anti Saraki senators when the issue of remaining leadership positions in the senate meant for the party was raised.

The Senator Ahmed Lawan Senate Unity Forum accused Saraki of attempting to impose principal officers on the caucus.

It insisted that the leadership of the party should be allowed to decide who should occupy positions belonging to the APC in the upper chamber.

The forum condemned the meeting, saying it was unconstitutional and an affront to the party leadership.

However the Like Minds Senators loyal to Saraki countered that the Lawan group were only out to scuttle the smooth take off of the Eighth Senate.

Senate Unity Forum Secretary Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North), who spoke to reporters at the venue of the botched meeting, said the uproar was as a result of an attempt to force leaders on the senators.

He noted that the method adopted by Saraki to pick leaders was unknown to the party’s constitution.

Hunkuyi said: “The group that gathered here was under the auspices of All Progressives Congress Senators Caucus.

“The APC Senators caucus is not an instrument of the constitution of the APC. The issue of leadership of the chamber that belongs to APC cannot be decided here. It is common reasoning and common sense.

“We have a leadership of the party. The leadership of the party, that is the APC, still reigns supreme to decide the four positions of leadership where it should go and who shall have it.

“An attempt here to do otherwise is the cause of this rancour. We are just coming from the national headquarters of the party and we are aware the leadership of the APC is doing all it can do to curb part of what should not have happened in this chamber.

“ Therefore, simply put, the cause of the rancour is an attempt by the leadership that has emerged, in otherwise fishy circumstances to again force their will on the majority of the Senators of the APC, notwithstanding the fact that there is a leadership of the APC that has not come up with the final decision.

“You could see it is a very simple thing but we believe it is an attempt, but a very bad one for that matter because it cannot happen.

“The Peoples Democratic Party that is even trailing behind has a procedure. The leadership of the PDP will definitely suggest and come up with procedure to give leadership of their own group which are four in number.

“Why is somebody trying to impose something else through another means, through another procedure that is not constitutional to APC. That will not happen.”

On whether names were proposed for the principal officers in the APC, he said: “That is not the issue first. The issue is that there are positions and they are supposed to be balanced. That is the first procedure and it cannot happen because we cannot claim to have the leadership of the APC here at the National Assembly.”

Asked at what point the Unity Forum suspected that people were going to be imposed on the APC caucus without the input of the party leadership, he said: “Because the party is not aware of what is happening here. As I told you, we are coming from the National Headquarters of the party. They are not aware.”

He was also asked whether it will be safe to say that the meeting broke up without achieving its desired objectives.

He said: “There is no way it can achieve any result. It does not exist anywhere within the constitution of the APC. This does not exist.”

But a member of the Like Minds Senators, Senator Ibrahim Abdullahi Danbaba (Sokoto South) said Hunkuyi’s account of what transpired in the meeting was wrong.

He said: “I didn’t get to hear exactly what the Senator said but because I just came around and I realized that there was a press conference that was going on, I had to stop because a lot of lies were being said.

“Now what I know is that yesterday evening there was an invitation for all APC senators to meet here at the National Assembly Complex Hearing Room 1 by 11pm.

“We came. There were two groups before the election and we all agreed that now there should be no faction within the APC.

“You know we had the Like Minds and we had what you call the Unity Forum. So, virtually most of us were around until around 11.30pm when the former leader of the Unity Forum, distinguished Senator Barnabas Gemade came to say that there was need for the meeting to be postponed till today and that was the reason why that meeting was put to 2pm today.”

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