in the party over the election of the eighth National Assembly
leadership.
Some APC lawmakers-elect, at a meeting with the leaders of the party
on Saturday, opposed the election of the House Minority Leader, Mr.
Femi Gbajabiamila, as the party's sole candidate for the speakership
of the lower chamber.
For the Senate, it was expected that the APC's senate presidential
candidate would also emerge through an election, but as of 6pm on
Saturday, two hours after the poll was scheduled to take place, no
explanation came from the party's leadership.
PUNCH reportst that the election was scheduled to hold at 4pm at the
International Conference Centre, but it was rescheduled when
supporters of Senator Bukola Saraki, one of the aspirants, requested
that it should be shifted to 6pm.
However, at 6pm, the same group requested that the poll be moved to
8pm, a move which was said to have angered Senator Ahmed Lawan's
supporters, who were eager for the election.
But, eventually when the meeting started at about 10pm, the pro-Saraki
Senator-elect boycotted it.
The APC leadership had initially scheduled separate meetings with
senators-elect and their counterparts for the House for Thursday.
The meetings were, however, shifted to Saturday (yesterday) because of
the Senate valedictory session which was held on Thursday.
The PUNCHhad reported on Thursday that the meetings were aimed at
picking candidates for the senate presidency and the speakership of
the House as part of efforts to resolve the crisis over the party's
candidates for the positions.
The eighth National Assembly will convene on Tuesday
House election
The APC has 213 out of the 360 members of the House of
Representatives. The meeting of its leadership with the members-elect
started at 10am.
Those who signed the attendance register at the meeting were 183,
while the total number of votes cast was 161.
Gbajabiamila emerged victorious by polling 154 votes to defeat his
opponent, Yakubu Dogara, who got three votes.
Four votes were declared invalid by the returning officer, the APC
National Vice -Chairman, North-East, Babachir Lawan .
But signs that the exercise would not be peaceful emerged when Dogara
and 18 of his supporters walked out of the venue when it became
apparent that the party was going ahead with the election despite
their protest against it.
Dogara's supporters had before the commencement of the day's business
distributed slips quoting the comments of President Muhammadu Buhari
in which he promised to work with whoever emerged because he had no
preferred candidate.
As they stepped into the hall and settled down for business, the
party's National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, explained the
need for the party to approach Tuesday's election of the National
Assembly leaders as a united house.
His explanation, which was designed to educate members about the
party's reason for getting involved, did not go down well with
Dogara's supporters who shouted, "no", "no" intermittently.
The party's national chairman, in consultation with members of the
party's National Working Committee present, asked all the contenders
to sign an undertaking that they would abide by the decision reached
after the meeting.
It was at this point that Dogara and his group walked out of the hall.
—PUNCH
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