Saraki, Odigie-Oyegun meet over APC crisis

Senate President, Bukola Saraki yesterday led some principal officers of the Senate to a crucial meeting with the national leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC), led by Chief John Odigie-Oyegun at the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja.

This is the first time Saraki is holding such consultation with the party’s national leadership since his emergence last year, against the party’s preferred choice of Ahmed Lawan for the post.

He was accompanied to the meeting by the Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, his deputy, Bala Ibn Na’Allah and the Whip, Prof. Sola Adeyeye.After the meeting, which lasted for over two and a half hours, both Saraki and Odigie-Oyegun, however, admitted to journalists that the end might not be in sight of the internal crisis within the party. But they agreed that the process of getting the issues resolved had begun with the meeting yesterday.

Saraki said: “We told ourselves the hard truth, but at the end of the day we accepted that certain things were not done but we agreed to move forward, work closely with the party for the interest of building APC because of Nigerians that believe in us.

We need to work closely together and we are hopeful that the new chapter is being opened today.”Odigie-Oyegun admitted that the party had not come near resolving its internal crisis yet, but said the process had just begun.

His words: “There is an end in sight. We have started the process, but there are issues to be resolved. We accept that things have gone wrong and we are determined to right those wrongs.

“It has been a very rewarding meeting. As far as the party is concerned, we commend the Senate and the National Assembly for the way they worked so far with the executive. We are determined to address some of the issues that still exist, the relationship between the National Assembly and the executive.

“We want to assure the public that they will see results that will lift their spirit in the next few weeks and months.”Odigie-Oyegun acknowledged that the meeting was coming late, but stressed that it was better late than never. He pledged that such consultations would hold regularly.