From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), led by Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and the party’s Senate caucus, led by Senate President, Bukola Saraki, met for over two hours, 30 minutes at the party headquarters, in Abuja, yesterday, behind closed doors.
After the meeting, both parties said although they told themselves “the bitter truth,” there were still several unresolved issues in their relationship.
Saraki, who led three other principal officers comprising Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, his deputy, Bala Ibn Na’Allah and Senate Chief Whip, Olusola Adeyeye, arrived the headquarters at exactly 2.10am, headed to the conference room where they met with the party leadership.
In his opening remarks, Oyegun commended the Senate leadership for the meeting, and stressed that dialogue would bring lasting peace in the party.
The party boss, for the first time, equally accepted that some of the steps taken by the party, immediately after taking over power, were responsible for myriad of problems the nation is currently going through.
“Distinguished President, I want to warmly welcome you to this first formal interaction between the NWC of the party and the leadership of the Senate.
“As we say, its better late than never. What is important is that as at today, the party is at the critical juncture and we have the opportunity to take a strong look at the party; a strong look at our control of the leadership of the Senate; the opportunity to draw up a new bases for cooperation between the party, its members in the Senate and off course the Executive.
“We all belong to one party but, unfortunately, it is clear in the public knowledge that our very first steps, when we came into office created problems and the very nature itself of the amalgamating parties created its own issue, all of which have tendered up till now to affect the mood of cooperation on the level of interaction between the various arms of government and the party.
Asked whether the meeting will bring peace in the ruling party, Oyegun told journalists after the meeting that, “It has been a very rewarding meeting. As far as the party is concerned, we commended the Senate and the entire National Assembly for the way they worked so far with the Executive.”
On his part, Saraki said: “We told ourselves hard truths but, at the end of the day, we accepted that certain things were not done but, we accepted to move forward and there is no question at all that we are a family…”
and when things have gone wrong, we accept that things have gone wrong and we are determined to right those wrongs,” he admitted.
work closely with the party for the interest of building the party because of Nigerians that believe in our party.
“We need to work closely together and we are hopeful that the new chapter is being open today and we are committed on the hopes and aspirations we gave Nigerians who came out to vote a year and half ago,” he said.
Meanwhile, there was a mild drama at the entrance to the office of the National chairman as the personnel of the Department of State Service (DSS) attached to the Senate President engaged a police Inspector attached to the APC secretariat in a shouting match.
The Police Inspector had told one of the DSS personnel that he wanted to ensure that the men he posted to the office of the Chairman were at their duty post, but he refused him, nothing: “Don’t disturb our work here. Your men are not here.”
Even when the Inspector tried to explain why he was there, the young DSS personnel shouted back at the much elderly Inspector “who are you”, attracting the attention of other security personnel and staff of the National secretariat as well as the Director of Administration who was already inside the Chairman’s office for the meeting.