The Presidency on Thursday night cleared the air on the circumstances surrounding the absence of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, at the meeting President Muhammadu Buhari held with some APC Reps members on Wednesday night.
According to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, Dogara was not expected at the meeting with the members loyal to the party having met with the President earlier on.
President Buhari was said to have told the 174 loyal lawmakers led by Femi Gbajabiamila that those who connived with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the National Assembly leadership elections are killing the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Shehu said the President expressed disappointment about what happened in the Senate, saying that Saraki and Dogara should have bent in deference to the party’s position.
Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara contested and emerged Senate President and Speaker respectively, defying party’s position which favoured Senator Ahmed Lawan and Hon.Femi Gbajabiamila for the two positions.
The SSA to the President said: ‘It was a mistake, possibly our own to have assumed that Speaker Dogara was expected at the meeting with President yesterday. He was not invited because he had had his own meeting with the President earlier on.
‘The President having heard from the Speaker needed to hear out Gbajabiamila and the 174 APC loyalist members behind him.
“When he met the representatives of APC the caucus on Tuesday night President Buhari rued the fact that “we won the battle and lost the war”. Without mentioning him in names, said that” those who went with the PDP know that they are killing the APC.”
“He said he is thoroughly disappointed about what happened in the Senate and is still agonising over it, but equally blamed the APC majority for failing to assert their numerical superiority.
“He said he expected Senator Saraki and Dogara to bend in deference to the Party leadership, because, as he said, “we have to make the choice of either having a party or none at all. I believe in the superiority of the party over all members so this issue and all others, I will continue to stand with the Party,” the President told the meeting.
“President Buhari is also expected to emphasise at tomorrow’s NEC meeting, that he is a product the party due process himself, and would not allow due process to end with him.
