Perceived crisis in APC mere conflict of ideas, says Dogara

• ‘Saraki’s election not sponsored by oil barons’
• ‘Reps to debate Ebonyi, Ajaokuta Steel, boundary dispute’

THE Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, yesterday described the perceived crisis in the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a mere conflict of ideas which is not enough to threaten the party’s chances in the 2019 general elections.

Dogara’s reaction yesterday came against the backdrop of the heat generated by the recent contest for leadership positions in the National Assembly and in response to media reports credited to the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, where he said that his emergence as the Deputy Senate President was a sign that the PDP was poised to reclaim what was taken from it by the APC in 2019.”

The Speaker, therefore, warned opposition politicians who, he said are basking in the euphoria with speculations that the APC is doomed to fail, to let the 2019 elections take care of itself when the time comes.

Dogara, who spoke while receiving a delegation of the defunct 2014 presidential primaries committee of the APC on a courtesy call yesterday, reiterated that the APC was here to deliver the long-awaited change in the country, adding: “We are here to work and we don’t have any reason to fail. We can’t fail. That’s why I pick holes in the ambition of those who have their eyes fixed on 2019.

“We didn’t get here because of 2019. If we do the right things and the people see results, 2019 will take care of itself. We can’t fail because we are here to bring change.”

Besides, the Speaker yesterday said the Eighth House of Representatives would discuss the lingering redundancy of the Ajaokuta Steel Company and the oil-induced boundary dispute between Kogi, Anambra and Edo states when it resumes plenary session next week.

He also hinted that the House would provide legislative intervention through sectoral debates on the floor of the chamber with a view to revolutionise the Ebonyi State solid mineral as well as agricultural sectors.

Dogara, who gave the indication in Abuja yesterday when he received the Kogi State as well as the Ebonyi State caucuses of the parliament who were on a separate courtesy call on him, stressed the need for the Federal Government to show more commitment in revamping the Ajaokuta Steel Complex in Kogi State so as to address the menace of unemployment besetting the country.

He told the lawmakers that the leadership of the House would, as a matter of national priority, start collaboration with the Executive to solve the problem bedeviling the steel complex, which he said, was a platform for the industrialisation of the country.

In another development, some senators of All Progressives Congress (APC) loyal to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, have refuted allegations that the election of Saraki was facilitated by some oil barons in the country.

Reacting yesterday to the national daily that carried the report, the spokesperson for the Senators of Like Minds, Dino Melaye, also declined insinuations that the election of the new Senate President was aimed at frustrating anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Melaye, who also stated that it was wrong and mischievous for the writer of the fictional piece to link what happened on the floor of both chambers of the National Assembly to some unnamed ex-ministers of the immediate past administration, said: “The attention of the Senators of Like Minds has been drawn to a malicious, false and totally reprehensible news report by one of the national dailies on Sunday, June 14, 2015, wherein it insinuated that the election of Bukola Saraki as the Senate President of the Eighth Senate was facilitated by Nigerians associated with dubious claims in the infamous oil subsidy.

“The news report went further to give a negative and dirty impression that the emergence of the President of the Eighth Senate is aimed to sabotage the anti-corruption posture of President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government.

“Ordinarily, we would have ignored the report given the writer’s antecedents in arm-chair reporting but for the sole reason