Accept compromise, Oyegun pleads with APC members

OLUSESAN LAOYE

Ahead of today’s meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), the party’s National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, has called on all the interest groups to accept compromise in the interest of the party and Nigeria generally.

Oyegun expressed that the party members must bear it in mind that they have to lose face for amicable resolution of the internal conflict.

Speaking with newsmen, yesterday, at the party’s national secretariat on the party’s reconciliation efforts, the chairman declared, “For me, I think that there is no other way to resolve the conflict other than for all of us to accept compromise. Each one of us will lose face and that is the only way forward.”

It would be recalled that the ruling APC has been enmeshed in crisis following the emergence of Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Yakubu Dogara as Speaker, House of Representative, contrary to the choice of the party.

Both Saraki and Dogara, had on June 9, 2015, defied the directive of the party by contesting the Senate presidency and the speakership against the wish of APC which had preferred Hammed Lawan as Senate President and Femi Gbajabiamila as speaker.

The controversy got worse with the emergence of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Ike Ekweremadu as the Senate deputy president.

Another issue that drew the ire of some members of the party was the refusal of Saraki and Dogara to read the letters sent to them at the floor of both chambers in regard to the choice of other principal officers in both the green and the red chambers.

APC had in a letter to Saraki named Lawan as its choice for the majority leader; Sola Adeyeye as chief whip; George Akume as deputy majority leader; and Abu Ibrahim as deputy chief whip.

The party also wrote Dogara and named a former minority leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, as the majority leader; Ado Doguwa as the deputy House leader; M.T. Monguno as the chief whip and Pally Iriase as the deputy chief whip.

Instead, Saraki read letters from zonal caucuses of the APC which favoured Ali Ndume from the North East as the majority leader; while the North West put forward Bala Na’Allah as the deputy majority leader, while the South South caucus adopted Francis Alimikhena as the deputy chief whip. ‎

In the House of Representatives, the refusal of Dogara to read the party’s letter threw the lower chamber into commotion.

Though, the party in a statement by its National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni, insisted on its position and rejected the principal officers announced by Saraki and Dogara.

Today’s NEC meeting, which is the first since the party won the 2015 presidential election is aimed at bringing all the interest groups together so as to amicably resolve the lingering crisis.